Rebels face pockets of resistance

Few civilians were willing to venture outside. The streets of the city were scattered with debris, broken glass, garbage and other remnants of fighting, while rebels manned checkpoints every few hundred yards.

But intense clashes broke out in the Abu Salim neighbourhood next to Gaddafi’s vast Bab al-Aziziya compound. Gaddafi loyalists inside Abu Salim were also firing into the captured compound. Abu Salim is home to a notorious prison and thought to be one of the regime’s final strongholds.

Rebels found no sign of Gaddafi but rumours churned through the city about his possible whereabouts. While the conquest effectively signalled the end of the regime, the rebels know they will face pockets of stiff resistance for some time to come – and that they cannot really proclaim victory until Gaddafi is found.

Col. Ahmed Bani, a rebel spokesman, said rebels were offering amnesty to anybody who killed or captured Gaddafi.

“The biggest prize is to offer amnesty, not to give money,” he said.

Gaddafi’s foreign minister told Channel 4 that the dictator had exhausted all his options and his rule “was over.” Although it was once thought possible that Gaddafi would get safe passage out of Libya, al-Obeidi said that was now unlikely.

“Now I’m not in touch with anybody, so it looks like things have passed this kind of solution,” he said.

Rebel fighters, who appeared to control most but not all of Bab al-Aziziya, were using the compound as staging area for their operations, loading huge trucks with ammunition and discussing deployments.

But their movements inside the compound were repeatedly disrupted by loyalist attacks, with pro-Gaddafi snipers firing on the fighters from tall buildings in Abu Salim.

The rebels claim they control the Tripoli airport but are still clashing with Gaddafi forces in the streets around it.

Elsewhere in the city, streets were deserted except for the from rebel checkpoints, where fighters looked for Gaddafi supporters and checked the trunks of cars for weapons. At one checkpoint, a picture of Gaddafi, once ubiquitous throughout the city, had been laid on the ground so cars had to drive over it.

Many buildings were covered in the pro-rebel graffiti that has appeared over the last few days.

Rubbish, already a problem in the waning months of Gaddafi’s rule, now covers many streets and sidewalks. The shredded remains of Gaddafi’s green flags were also scattered across the city.

Even as his 42-year-old regime was crumbling around him, Gaddafi vowed not to surrender. In an audio message he called on residents of the Libyan capital and loyal tribesmen to free Tripoli from the “devils and traitors” who have overrun it.

Rebel leaders, meanwhile, made first moves to set up a new government in the capital. During Libya’s six-month civil war, opposition leaders had established their interim administration, the National Transitional Council, in the eastern city of Benghazi, which fell under rebel control shortly after the outbreak of widespread anti-regime protests in February.

“Members of the council are now moving one by one from Benghazi to Tripoli,” said Mansour Seyf al-Nasr, the Libyan opposition’s new ambassador to France.