Rebels overrun Gaddafi compound

Rebels overran Moamer Gaddafi’s fortified Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli on Tuesday in heavy fighting that sent loyalist troops fleeing and tightened the opposition’s grip on the Libyan capital.
There was no immediate word on the whereabouts of Gaddafi and his family as the insurgents swarmed the complex after breaching the defences following 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,” an AFP correspondent said.
“It is an incredible sight.” The seizure of the compound sparked celebrations by the rebel fighters, who fired their automatic weapons in the air and danced in joy. The fighting for Gaddafi’s nerve centre was the most intense in the city since rebel fighters in their hundreds came surging through the gates of the capital three days ago.
The sky in the afternoon was filled with the sound of heavy and light machine guns as well as mortars, with the overhead roar of NATO jets, though it was unclear if they carried out air strikes. Even two kilometres from the fighting, the almost constant whistle of falling bullets could be hear from the rooftops, as the city’s mosques chanted Allahu Akbar.
Rebel leaders said fighters from their western bastion of Misrata, renowned for their prowess after breaking a months-long siege of the port city by Gaddafi’s forces, had joined Tripoli rebels in the assault, which also saw the deployment of tanks captured from loyalist forces. On the eastern front, Libyan rebels Tuesday overran the eastern oil hub of Ras Lanuf on the road to Moamer Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte, their military spokesman Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani said.
“We are now in Ras Lanuf,” Bani told AFP, adding he hoped insurgents would soon reach Bin Jawad, a hamlet just east of Sirte and almost halfway between the rebel-held cities of Benghazi and Misrata. Bab al-Azizya had been the site chosen very early Tuesday by Gaddafi’s son, Seif al-Islam, to make an appearance before journalists to refute reports that he had been arrested by the rebels.