Muammar Gaddafi was a hunted man on Monday as loyal remnants of his forces made a last-ditch stand in the capital, Tripoli, and world leaders embraced the fractious Libyan rebels as new masters of the oil-rich north African state.
Nearly 48 hours after a pincer thrust on Tripoli by the irregular rebel armies, launched in tandem with an uprising in the capital, Gaddafi’s tanks and sharpshooters appeared to hold only small areas, including his Bab al-Aziziya headquarters.
Civilians, who mobbed the streets late on Sunday to cheer the end of dictatorship, stayed indoors as gunfire crackled. Gaddafi’s Prime Minister showed up in Tunisia. State TV went off the air and rebels said they had seized its transmitters.
More Libyan embassies abroad hoisted the rebel flag. Western powers who deployed air power in support of various rebel groups in different regio-ns, urged the “Brother Leader” to accept his 42 years of absolute power were over, and to end the bloodshed after six months of civil war.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who took an early gamble on the Libyan rebels, called on Gaddafi loyalists “to turn their back on the criminal and cynical blindness of their leader by immediately ceasing fire, giving up their arms and turning themselves in to the legitimate Libyan authorities”.
US President Barack Obama said: “Muammar Gaddafi and his regime need to recognise that their rule has come to an end.”
Egypt, whose Arab Spring revolt inspired its neighbours, abandoned its caution and recognised the rebel government. Other beleaguered Arab revolutionaries, notably in Syria, may take heart from a hard-fought triumph in Libya.
With international competition already heating up for Libyan oil, Russia and China, critics of the West’s assault on Gaddafi, also indicated he should bow to the now inevitable. But after a defiant audio address on Sunday urging citizens to take up arms against rebel “rats”, no more was heard from a man who is one of the world’s longest ruling leaders and who vowed do die fighting rather than surrender. Various officials said they did not know where he was. Two of Gaddafi’s sons were detained, including Saif al-Islam who has been indicted with his father for crimes against humanity. Two other sons, Khamis and Mutassim, were reported by Arab media to be with those fighting.
The national council’s Jalil said it would favour foreign countries that had supported the rebellion — a potential blow to the likes of Chinese and Russian oil companies, though they are not the only ones to have cut deals with Gaddafi. Western governments had competed for the veteran ruler’s favour in recent years after negotiating a grudging resolution to decades of conflict.
— Reuters