Libyan rebels raced into Tripoli in a lightning advance Sunday that met little resistance as Moammar Gadhafi\'s defenders melted away and his 40-year rule appeared to rapidly crumble. The euphoric fighters celebrated with residents of the capital in the city\'s main square, the symbolic heart of the regime.
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| Alexandre Meneghini - People celebrate the recent news of uprising in Tripoli against Moammar Gadhafi\'s regime at the rebel-held town of Benghazi, Libya, early Sunday, Aug. 21, 2011. Libyan rebels said they …more launched their first attack on Tripoli in coordination with NATO late Saturday, and Associated Press reporters heard unusually heavy gunfire and explosions in the capital. The fighting erupted just hours after opposition fighters captured the key city of Zawiya nearby. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini) |
Opposition fighters captured Gadhafi\'s son and one-time heir apparent, Seif al-Islam. The prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands said he would contact the rebels to discuss his handover for trial on charges of crimes against humanity.
Associated Press reporters with the rebels said the fighters rebels easily advanced 20 miles on Sunday from the west, took town after town — welcomed by residents — overwhelmed a major military base, then swept into the capital in a stunning turning of the tide in the 6-month-old Libyan civil war.
The fighters and Tripoli residents who support them flooded Green Square, shooting in the air in celebration, clapping and waving the rebels\' tri-color flag, according to television footage of the scene. Some set fire to the green flag of Gadhafi\'s regime and shot holes in a poster with his image.
"Now we don\'t call it the Green Square, but we call it the Martyrs Square," said Nour Eddin Shatouni, a 50-year-old engineer who was among the residents who flowed out of their homes to join the celebrations. "We were waiting for the signal and it happened. All mosques chanted \'God is great\' all at once. We smelled a good scent, it is the smell of victory. We know it is the time."
Green Square holds profound symbolic value. The regime has held pro-Gadhafi rallies there nearly every night since the revolt began in February, and the historic Red Fort that overlooks the square is a favorite scenic spot for the Libyan leader to deliver speeches to his loyalists.
Thousands of Libyans also celebrated in the streets of Benghazi, the rebels\' de facto capital in the east. Firing guns into the air and shooting fireworks, they cheered and waved the rebel tricolor flags, dancing and singing in the city\'s main square.
Gadhafi\'s whereabouts Sunday were unknown. But he delivered a series of angry and defiant audio messages broadcast on state television, calling on his supporters to march in the streets of the capital and "purify it" from "the rats." He was not shown in the messages.
His defiance raised the possibility of a last-ditch fight over the capital, home to 2 million people. Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim claimed the regime has "thousands and thousands of fighters" and vowed: "We will fight. We have whole cities on our sides. They are coming en masse to protect Tripoli to join the fight."
But it appeared that key parts of Gadhafi\'s military were peeling away.
The rebels\' way into Tripoli was opened when the military unit in charge of protecting Gadhafi and the capital surrendered, ordering his troops to drop their weapons, the rebel information minister Mahmoud Shammam said.
In a sign of the coordination among rebels, as the main force moved into the city from the west, a second force of 200 opposition fighters from the city of Misrata further east landed by boat in the capital, bringing weapons and ammunition for Tripoli residents who join the rebellion, said Munir Ramzi of the rebels\' military council in Misrata.
The rebels\' speedy leap forward over just a few dramatic hours was a stunning reversal for Gadhafi, who earlier this month had seemed to have a firm grip on his stronghold in the western part of Libya, despite months of NATO airstrikes on his military. Rebels had been unable to make any advances for weeks, bogged down on the main fronts with regime troops in the east and center of the country.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Gadhafi\'s regime was "clearly crumbling" and that the time to create a new democratic Libya has arrived.
