The colonel’s 41-year-old rule over Libya is collapsing after opposition forces swept into the heart of Tripoli on Sunday night.
Rebels now control 95 per cent of the city, according to the Libyan rebels’ top diplomat in London. Mahmud Nacua said there were “still some pockets’’ of support for the Libyan leader, but rebels were asserting control. They had not yet found Col Gaddafi but would “turn over every stone to find him, to arrest him, and to put him in the court,’’ he said.
Fighting continues on the streets of Tripoli. "The situation is not stable. There is gunfire everywhere. Gaddafi's forces are using tanks at the port and Al Sarine street near (Gaddafi's compound at) Bab al-Aziziyah," a rebel official told Reuters. "The revolutionaries are positioned everywhere in Tripoli, some of them are near Bab al-Aziziyah, but Gaddafi's forces have been trying to resist." The colonel’s son Khamis is leading a military force towards central Tripoli, Al Arabiya TV said.
World leaders have welcomed the rebel advance and called on Col Gaddafi to stand down immediately.
As jubilant crowds filled Green Square in the capital on Sunday night, Col Gaddafi maintained a defiant posture. In an audio message on state TV, he called on all Muslims and Libyan tribes to march on the city to prevent themselves becoming servants to imperialists and traitors.
Mustafa Abdel Jalil, head of the Benghazi-based rebel council, told Al Jazeera television that the leader’s son Seif al-Islam had been captured, saying he had ordered that he be treated well “so that he can face trial”. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, has said he will contact the rebels to urge them to hand him over. It is “time for justice, not revenge,” he told the Associated Press. Mohammed Al-Gaddafi, the Libyan leader’s eldest son, surrendered, rebel officials said.
The rapid move of rebel forces into the centre of Tripoli came after a series of advances in strategic towns around the capital over recent days that broke months of stalemate on the front lines.
Initial resistance in the capital evaporated as rebel forces overwhelmed units loyal to Col Gaddafi. Nato, which has supported the rebel advance with aerial bombardment, described Col Gaddafi’s rule as “crumbling”. It said it would continue its combat air patrols over Libya until all pro-Gaddafi forces surrender or return to their barracks.
Posted in: NEWS
