Libya News Update: Gadhafi, the Battle for Sirte and Yellow Cake

Anti-Gadhafi fighters in Libya shouldn't be called rebels anymore now that the interim government, the National Transitional Council (NTC), has control of the country and has been recognized by nearly all of the world's powers.

NTC troops are currently fighting for control of Sirte, Gadhafi's birthplace, where loyalists fighters are putting up a fierce resistance. Pro-Gadhafi forces, with the ferocity of men who... are making their last stand, according to Reuters, used rockets, artillery and snipers to push back the invading troops who have surrounded the city.

Council commanders tried to negotiate a truce with the loyalists, but all signs indicate that the talks failed.

Remaining Gadhafi forces refuse to recognize their defeat, said NATO spokesman Col. Roland Lavoie, The Associated Press reported.

As a last resort, they are hiding in civilian areas.

NATO is backing-up the anti-Gadhafi fighters and has been conducting air-strikes on Sirte, as well as the city of Bani Walid, another Gadhafi loyalist stronghold.

Some civilians fleeing Sirte claim that NATO bombs have destroyed a number of non-military targets and are calling the attacks a massacre. NATO, which confirmed hits on artillery and ammunition stores, reportedly bombed schools and hospitals in the city, according to The Australian.

Meanwhile, U.N. officials, working on information from the NTC, claim that uranium yellowcake was found in the south of the country. Yellowcake is powered, partially refined uranium ore used in nuclear reactors that can be used to make nuclear weapons.

At least 10,000 drums of the radioactive substance were discovered, according to The Telegraph.

The council already found a large cache of chemical weapons in facilities abandoned by Gadhafi forces, including large quantities of mustard gas, which will be transferred to a safe location by the U.N.

We are looking for a peaceful country and we don't want these kinds of weapons to stay in it, an NTC statement said.

Additionally, around 20,000 surface-to-air missiles are missing from storehouses, officials noted Tuesday. The locations of the weapons had previously been recorded by international monitoring agencies, and their disappearance is worrisome.

I think the probability of al-Qaida being able to smuggle some of the stinger-like missiles out of Libya is probably pretty high, former White House counter-terrorism adviser Richard Clarke told ABC News.