BBC news with Marion Marshal.

Thousands of Libyans have been fleeing from the city of Sirte, one of the last

strongholds

of colonel Gaddafi's forces under a temporary ceasefire. The city has been under siege for weeks but Gaddafi loyalists continued to offer fierce resistence. Jonathan Head is outside Sirte.

A mass of cars crowded around two petrol tankers parked beside the road leading west from Sirte.Hoses were hurriedly pushed into petrol tanks, each car getting a few litres, enough to get them away from the

besieged

town. They were packed with possessions and with people. These are mostly Gaddafi supporters and they seemed very stressed.

"I don't understand what's happening", said a male." There were shells and bombs exploding all around my house. We had to leave. With the

exodus

picking up transitional government forces hope they can finally take the town.

The Afghan government says the killer of the former president Burhanuddin Rabbani was a Pakistani citizen and the plot itself was organized from inside Pakistan. Mr Rabbani who's attempting to mediate between the Afghan government and the Taliban rebels was assassinated by a suicide bomber almost two weeks ago.

The head of the

interim

military government in Egypt has said the ousted president president Hosni Mubarak never ask the army to fire on protesters. Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi who is Mr Mubarak's defence minister said he had testified before God and told the truth. Sebastian Usher has more.