Libya’s triumphant rebels seized Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s compound in Tripoli on Tuesday after a fierce battle with a loyalist rearguard, but there was no word on the fate of the Libyan dictator who vowed again to fight “to the end”.
Rebel fighters streamed through the sprawling Bab al-Aziziya headquarters compound, firing in the air in celebration after hours of heavy clashes. But it was unclear whether the “Brother Leader” or his sons were still somewhere in the complex’s maze of buildings and bunkers.
Defensive fire died away and hundreds of jubilant rebels poured in. Some smashed a statue of Col. Gaddafi. Others hunted through dozens of buildings, unchallenged, seizing weaponry and vehicles. The rebels’ envoy to the United Nations said the area was “totally in the hands of the revolutionaries”. One man shouted: “It’s over. Gaddafi is finished.”
The Russian head of the World Chess Federation, who visited Col. Gaddafi in Tripoli in June, said he had received a call from him on Tuesday afternoon in which Col. Gaddafi said he was still in the capital. He “is in Tripoli, he is alive and healthy and is prepared to fight to the end”, said Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.
Western governments, which have backed disparate opposition groups, said they could not be sure where the 69-year-old leader was but urged him to surrender.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said after speaking to US President Barack Obama that the end of Col. Gaddafi’s rule was “inevitable and near”.
— Reuters