Rebels have broken into Col Muammer Gaddafi’s compound, witnesses say, after a day of fierce fighting around the Libyan leader’s heavily-fortified stronghold in the capital Tripoli.
Anti-Gaddafi fighters have breached the six sq km compound and fired into the air in celebration. There has been heavy fighting, gunfire and explosions around and within the Bab al-Aziziya compound, with thick clouds of smoke visible in the Tripoli sky.
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It is unclear where Col Gaddafi is, though reports out of Russia suggest he is alive and in Tripoli. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, president of the international chess federation, told Reuters he had spoken with the colonel and his son Mohammed. ”He is in Tripoli, he is alive and healthy and is prepared to fight to the end,” said Mr Illyumzhinov, who was pictured playing chess with the colonel in June.
Rebel forces swept through Tripoli streets in a weekend advance welcomed by world leaders. About 80 per cent of the Libyan capital is now controlled by forces opposed to Col Gaddafi, the European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said, citing rebel leaders.
“For the Gaddafi regime, this is the final chapter,” said Nato spokesperson Oana Lungescu. “The end is near.”
Earlier alliance military officers said regime forces were still defending coastal access roads between Brega and Misurata, as well as routes between Tripoli and the south.
The alliance officials said the fighting posed a threat to civilians, meaning they had no plans to scale back their mission. “We have to have a presence,” said one Nato official. “In order to be able to do something, you have to be over top [of Tripoli]. You can’t act sitting in your bases.”
However, the officials reiterated that they were not co-ordinating their attacks with the rebels and said they would not conduct close-air support for opposition forces in Tripoli.
In response to reports that Nato planes had targeted the colonel’s compound, French Col. Roland Lavoie, a spokesman for the operation’s headquarters in Naples, said that while command-and-control facilities were a legitimate target, the alliance would not specifically bomb facilities like Mr Gaddafi’s compound in central Tripoli simply because he may be there. “We do not target individuals, and Gaddafi is not a target for Nato,” Col. Lavoie said.
Col Gaddafi’s compound
Bab al-Aziziya means Splendid Gate. It houses Col Gaddafi’s private quarters as well as a military barracks.
The six sq km base is located south of Tripoli at the northern end of Airport Highway.
The site is normally dotted with tents, residential buildings, security encampments, and the remains of a house bombed by the US in 1986 and kept in ruins as a memorial.
The compound is believed to be linked to a network of tunnels and bunkers that lead to other parts of Tripoli and possibly the sea.
Source: Reuters
Seif al Islam, who rebels on Monday claimed to have in detention, appeared overnight in a Gaddafi stronghold in Tripoli, claiming that the rebels had fallen into “a trap” in the capital city.
Wearing a full beard, an olive tee shirt and camouflage trousers, Seif al-Islam Gaddafi arrived at the Rixos hotel early on Tuesday morning. He did not comment on how he had escaped custody or indeed if he had ever been detained. "We broke the back of the rebels. It was a trap. We gave them a hard time, so we are winning," he told reporters.
Asked if his father, who has not been seen in public for weeks, was safe and well in Tripoli, he said: "Of course."
“A brief appearance in the dead of night doesn't indicate, to me, somebody who's in control of a country or capital, or anything much at all really,” Nato spokeswoman Oana Lungescu told reporters in Brussels. "It shows that the remnants of the regime are on the run."
Nick Clegg, UK deputy prime minister, said that “our assessment is that Free Libya forces now control much, but not all, of Tripoli”. He added that it was “only a matter of time before they are finally defeated and Libya is completely free”. International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell blamed the confusion over his arrest on the “fog of warfare'”.
Brent crude had fallen 70 cents to $107.66 by 1402 GMT on Tuesday, amid continued uncertainty about the situation in Tripoli.
