Rebels capture Qadhafi compound in Tripoli

TRIPOLI: Rebel fighters captured Moamer Qadhafi 's heavily fortified Bab al-Aziziya compound and headquarters in Tripoli on Tuesday after a day of fierce fighting, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

The defenders had fled, and there was no immediate word on the whereabouts of Qadhafi 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." On Tuesday morning, Qadhafi 's son Seif al-Islam, who was reportedly under arrest, made a surprise appearance in Tripoli and announced that his father and family were still in the capital.

However, he declined to say where. "Qadhafi and the entire family are in Tripoli," Seif told reporters at the Rixos Hotel where many foreign journalists are housed.

Seif also said the regime's forces had deliberately not tried to prevent the rebels from entering the capital. "Allowing the rebels to enter Tripoli was a trick," he said, without elaborating.

NATO, meanwhile, said Qadhafi was "not a target" for the military alliance.

"NATO does not target individuals," said Operation Unified Protector spokesman, Colonel Roland Lavoie. "Qadhafi does not constitute a target," he told reporters in Brussels via video-conference from the mission's Naples headquarters.

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 correspondent said that rebel forces coming from the western city of Misrata had reinforced the offensive during the afternoon.

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 over flights 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).

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011