Rebel fighters captured Muoamer Gaddafi’s heavily defended Bab al-Aziziya compound and headquarters in Tripoli on Tuesday after a day of heavy fighting, an AFP correspondent witnessed.
The defenders had fled, and there was no immediate word on the whereabouts of Gaddafi or his family after the insurgents breached the defences as part of a massive assault that began in the morning.
“Rebels breached the surrounding cement walls and entered inside. They have taken Bab al-Azizya. Completely. It is finished,” the correspondent said.
“It is an incredible sight.”
Only minutes earlier, rebel spokesman Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani said from Benghazi: “Our forces are surrounding Bab al-Azizya. There is a fierce battle going on there. We are now controlling one of the gates, the western entrance.”
In the hours that led up to the storming of the compound in central Tripoli, the sound of the fighting was the most intense heard in the city since rebels arrived three days ago.
The sky was filled with the sound of heavy and light machine guns as well as mortars, with the overhead roar of NATO jets that had been carrying intensive overflights though it was unclear if there were any air strikes.
Even two kilometres (about a mile) from the fighting, the almost constant whistle of falling bullets could be hear from the rooftops, as the city’s mosques chanted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest).
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