Defiant Gaddafi urges Tripoli fightback
Muammar Gaddafi has called on the residents of the Libyan capital to "free Tripoli" from the "devils" who have overrun it.
In the speech, aired today by local Al-Ouraba TV, Gaddafi sounded subdued and without his usual fiery rhetoric.
Addressing the people in Tripoli, Gaddafi asked: "Why are you letting them wreak havoc?"
The broadcast came a day after hundreds of Libyan rebels stormed Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound in the capital but found no sign of the long-time leader who is now in hiding.
The pro-Gaddafi TV channel earlier quoted the Libyan leader as saying he had left the compound in a "tactical move" after 64 Nato airstrikes turned it to rubble.
Yesterday rebels charged wildly through the symbolic heart of the crumbling regime as they killed loyalist troops, looted armouries and knocked the head off a statue of the besieged dictator.
But they found no sign of the man himself.
The storming of Bab al-Aziziya, long the nexus of Gaddafi's power, marked the effective collapse of his 42-year-old regime.
The rebel force entered the compound after fighting for five hours with Gaddafi loyalists outside, using mortars, heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft guns.
They killed some of those who defended the compound and hauled off thousands of rifles, crates of weapons and trucks with guns mounted on the back in a frenzy of looting.
In the address, Gaddafi said he would fight "the aggression with all strength until either victory or death".
His chief government spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, also managed to get word out in a phone interview with the same TV station, promising "we will be back to take Tripoli back".
Rebels claim to control 80% of Tripoli but, with Gaddafi and his powerful sons still unaccounted for, and gun battles flaring across the nervous city, the fighters cannot declare victory.
