Jubilant Rebels Control Much of Tripoli

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/world/africa/22scene.html?hp

The New York Times...

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August 21, 2011

Instead of a Bloody Struggle, a Headlong Rush Into a Cheering Capital
By KAREEM FAHIM

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TRIPOLI, Libya — In the end, it was more of a Sunday drive than a punishing final offensive.

From the first cautious ventures out of the hard-fought prize of Zawiyah, the rebels’ advance became a headlong rush into the heart of Tripoli and Green Square, the symbol of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s power. By nightfall, the rebels were in command of the square, the scene of so many manic, forced declarations of fealty to Colonel Qaddafi. Now, the portraits were ripped down, along with the green flags that marked his rule. Instead, young men waved rebel flags in the renamed Martyrs’ Square.

By 2:30 a.m. Monday, a wary quiet had taken hold. Rebel fighters secured the entrances to the square and staffed checkpoints in parts of the capital. There were small, ecstatic gatherings, but there were also long, silent streets in a city of frayed nerves, and rumors of roving government soldiers and snipers everywhere. After their speedy advance, the rebels’ hold on parts of central Tripoli seemed evident but also tenuous.

Bullets ricocheted here and there, and sounds of gunfights erupted sporadically but faded by the early morning. The road from Zawiyah to Tripoli was jammed with hundreds of cars, many with fighters aboard, in what looked like a move to further secure the city.

Sunday began with the sound of rockets. The roar subsided as the rebels moved beyond Zawiyah, a city that had taken days of heavy fighting to win back from the Qaddafi forces. But each time, the fighters found it a temporary jolt rather than a protracted battle.

The first major test was the military base for the feared Khamis Brigade, a heavy armored unit commanded by one of Colonel Qaddafi’s sons, in the town of Mayah. The brigade is the keystone of the so-called ring of steel defense line about 17 miles west of Tripoli, and for months NATO forces had identified it as the main obstacle to an advance to the capital.

Locals fear it: the Khamis Brigade’s troops do what they want, residents say, and get all the guns they want. Since the February uprising, the base has also served as a prison for government opponents.

On Sunday, the bodies of six Qaddafi soldiers lay near the entrance. A group of prisoners released from the base spoke of their torture and cried. Fighters cheered and grabbed what they could, including the most popular item, a Belgian gun, stacking pickup trucks high with weapons. Emad Ali took two bottles of battery fluid and some grease.

“I wanted something useful for the soldiers,” he said.

The soldiers did not need much help from Mr. Ali. NATO warplanes had flown overhead for days, bombing targets in the capital and its surroundings to clear the path to Tripoli.

An uprising in Tripoli on Saturday night also laid the groundwork. At the “zero hour,” as the rebels called it, residents took to the streets and held demonstrations that were met with deadly force by Qaddafi soldiers — who also further exposed their heavy artillery to NATO surveillance, one rebel leader said.

All day, news of fresh advances made its way back from the front lines, and then became obsolete. The rebels flew through town after town until they reached Janzur, a Tripoli suburb.

A convoy met them, but it was of jubilant Tripoli residents who had heard they were coming, honking car horns and screaming and waving out their windows as the fighters went past.

In Gargaresh, an affluent neighborhood in western Tripoli, residents spilled into the streets — at first in disbelief, compulsively sharing the news; then in joy, hugging and cheering — as they received text messages saying that the rebels had entered the city.

“My country is free! God is great! My country is free!” screamed one Gargaresh resident, reached by telephone. He had to shout — the rhythmic roar of the crowd with him drowned out any quieter conversation.

He and his neighbors had spent weeks inside their houses, he said, trying to keep trips outside as infrequent as possible because they feared Colonel Qaddafi’s security forces. But on Sunday night, they all reunited in a triumphant block party that lasted all night.

“They went in such a big hurry,” said Majid el-Haif, 32, a resident of the Siyahiya neighborhood who was in the street with his neighbors to celebrate the quick retreat of pro-Qaddafi forces. “It was so smooth.”

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Jehad Nga contributed reporting from Doha, Qatar.

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PHOTO: Bryan Denton for The New York Times

A rebel searched through ammunition at a supply warehouse on Tripoli's outskirts on Sunday.

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Obama on #Libya: '#Tripoli is slipping from the grasp of a tyrant' http://t.co/MPgiLcO" - @cnnbrk

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http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/08/201182261941319259.html

Al Jazeera...

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Clashes near Gaddafi's compound

Fighting rages in Tripoli near compound of beleaguered Libyan leader as rebels sweep into capital.

Last Modified: 22 Aug 2011 07:18

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The sound of heavy fighting and gun battles were heard in pockets of Tripoli, after rebels overnight gained control of much of the Libyan capital in a sweeping operation.

Clashes erupted on Monday after tanks left Bab Azaziya, Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli, and foreign journalists have been trapped inside the Rixos hotel.

"They are not allowed to leave the hotel because there are Gaddafi men in the area and around the area," Zeina Khodr, Al Jazeera's correspondent, said from Green Square.

"We have been in contact with some of them [journalists trapped in Rixos hotel] and they are telling us basically they were held there almost as human shields."

Throughout the night, euphoric Libyan rebels moved into the centre of Tripoli as Gaddafi's defenders melted away and thousands of jubilant civilians rushed out of their homes to cheer the long convoys of pickup trucks packed with fighters shooting in the air.

Green Square which has now been renamed Martyrs Square by the rebels had been the site of night rallies by Gaddafi supporters throughout the uprising.

The rebels' surprising and speedy leap forward, after six months of largely deadlocked civil war, was packed into just a few dramatic hours. By nightfall on Sunday, they had advanced more than 32km to Tripoli.

Our correspondent said rebels have tried to maintain order in the capital.

"The people of Tripoli really are maintaining law and order in the areas that they are now controlling in Tripoli.

"They have set up checkpoints, are searching cars and looking for possible Gaddaffi supporters, because ever since late last night they were worried about sleeper cells in the capital."

There has been no word on the whereabouts of Gaddafi himself. Gaddafi has delivered a series of angry and defiant audio messages in recent days, vowing not to surrender. In the latest one, he acknowledged that opposition forces were moving into Tripoli and warned the city would be turned into another Baghdad.

"How come you allow Tripoli, the capital, to be under occupation once again?" he said. "The traitors are paving the way for the occupation forces to be deployed in Tripoli."

South Africa is understood to be in negotiations with the Gaddafi camp to find a country of refuge for the Libyan leader.

Al Jazeera's correspondent in Johannesburg, Haru Matasa, said Angola and Zimbabwe have been cited as countries the embattled leader is most likely to go to.

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In other developments:

Gaddafi's two eldest sons are in custody. Saif al-Islam, had been arrested in a tourist village in western Tripoli and has been detained by the International Criminal Court and Mohammed, surrendered to rebel forces and spoke to Al Jazeera shortly afterwards.

US President Barack Obama says momentum against Gaddafi has reached a tipping point as world leaders heralded a "new beginning" for Libya.

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http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/images/08/22/c1main.tripoli.gi.jpg

CNN...

Rebels say Libya is under their control, but Gadhafi doesn't back down

By the CNN Wire Staff
August 22, 2011 4:02 a.m. EDT
Click picture to play video

Tripoli falls under rebel's control

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: A rebel official gives a timeline to create a framework for a new government
NEW: But he says the government still controls several parts of Tripoli
A rebel spokesman says Libya is now under the control of the opposition

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Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Six months after a ragtag group of poorly trained rebels set out to topple the Libyan regime, the fighters appeared Monday to be on the brink of ending Moammar Gadhafi's 42-year rule.

The holdout now: A barrage of clashes with Gadhafi forces on his home turf, Tripoli.

"A great majority of the capital of Tripoli is under freedom fighters' control," said Guma El-Gamaty, the Britain-based coordinator for the rebels' Transitional National Council.

But Gadhafi's forces remained in control of at least three parts of the city -- a hospital, a military barracks and Rixos hotel where international journalists are staying.

A Libyan government official, who asked not to be named, conceded that the regime had lost control of some parts of the capital.

In Zawiya -- a key coastal city that appeared under rebel control -- residents celebrated by firing guns in the air, setting off fireworks and chanting, "Libya is free!" And in Benghazi, one resident called the rebel gains as joyous as "New Year's Day."

Confident that victory was close, the rebel government began making plans to govern.

Gamaty told CNN Monday that it will take 18 to 20 months to create a political framework for a new Libyan government.

Though fighting in Tripoil continues, "Libya is under the control of the TNC," said Ali Suleiman Aujali, the rebel government's ambassador to the United States. Aujali added that Gadhafi brigades have raised the white flag in the key town of al-Brega.

CNN could not independently confirm his claim.

Celebrations in Tripoli's Green Square -- renamed Martyrs' Square by the rebels -- dampened after rebels told CNN thcat they'd heard Gadhafi army forces were heading their way.

Sporadic gunfire and explosions coming from the direction of Gadhafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound could be heard Monday morning.

Much of Bab al-Aziziya has already been destroyed by NATO airstrikes, and a fight for the compound might be more symbolic in nature.

Rebels seeking Gadhafi's ouster rejoiced Sunday after news that two of the ruler's sons -- Saif al-Islam and Saadi -- had been arrested by opposition forces.

The next day, a third Gadhafi son was also taken into custody.

"I'm being attacked right now. This is gunfire inside my house. They are inside my house," he told Al Jazeera.

"As for the other four sons, we think they are either hiding or they have run away," El-Gamaty said.

The fate of Saif al-Islam Gadhafi -- an outspoken defender of his father's regime -- could lie in the hands of the International Criminal Court.

Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said the court plans to begin negotiating Monday for his transfer to its custody. Saif al-Islam is wanted for crimes against humanity, along with his father and the elder Gadhafi's intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Sanussi.

But Aujali, the rebel government ambassador, said he thinks the Libyan people should decide what to do with the sons.

There was no immediate reaction from Libyan government officials to the arrests.

On Sunday, Gadhafi took to the airwaves several times urging citizens, including women, to fight the rebels -- whom he called "very small groups of people who are collaborators with the imperialists."

"Get out and lead, lead, lead the people to paradise," he said.

Libyan government spokesman Musa Ibrahim told reporters late Sunday night that about 1,300 people had been killed and about 5,000 wounded in fighting in the previous 12 hours.

"(The city) is being turned into a hellfire," he said.

"Every drop of Libyan blood shed by these rebels is the responsibility of the western world, especially NATO's countries."

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the Gadhafi regime is "clearly crumbling."

"The sooner Gadhafi realizes that he cannot win the battle against his own people, the better -- so that the Libyan people can be spared further bloodshed and suffering," Rasmussen said in a statement Monday.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Sunday night the momentum against Gadhafi's regime has reached a tipping point.

"Tripoli is slipping from the grasp of a tyrant," Obama said. "The surest way for the bloodshed to end is simple: Moammar Gadhafi and his regime need to recognize that their rule has come to an end."

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CNN's Sara Sidner, Jomana Karadsheh, Raja Razek, Matthew Chance, Christine Theodorou, Kamal Ghattas, Kareem Khadder, Roba Alhenawi and Barbara Starr and journalist Mike Mount contributed to this report.

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