As National Transitional Council forces focus on the last two major strongholds loyal to toppled leader, Muammar Gaddafi, families streamed out of Sirte to escape the fighting.
NTC soldiers set up a checkpoint to search vehicles leaving Gaddafi's hometown.
One resident fleeing with his family said people were being killed there every day.
(SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) SIRTE RESIDENT, JAMAL SALAM, SAYING:
"The situation is not good at all, the bombing is random and strikes from here are falling on people there. (Off camera fighter Q: Who told you it was us?) One minute, you say it's not you and they say it's not them, but we are burying two or three bodies everyday. We are civilians minding our own business."
Workers from Niger, who had been employed on farms in the area also fled the violence.
The several attempts made by NTC forces to take Sirte in the last week has ended in disarray and panicked retreat.
In Herawa, a town east of Sirte, hundreds of anti-Gaddafi forces wait for the word to advance.
They expect to be met by heavy resistance, though giving the NTC a boost, NATO has extended their air cover support for another three months.
Marie-Claire Fennessy, Reuters
