"Libyan territory is 90 to 95 percent under the control of the rebellion," Colonel Abdullah Abu Afra said.

"The fall of Bab al-Aziziyah marked the end of the Kadhafi regime in Tripoli and in Libya," Afra said, referring to Kadhafi's Tripoli compound.

"Moamer Kadhafi is now part of the past, and of history," he said.

But while Bab al-Aziziya has been captured, fighting still raged near the compound on Wednesday, as loyalist forces fought back against a rebel offensive that has seized most of the capital.

The whereabouts of the strongman himself and his family remained a mystery on Wednesday. Rebel fighters said they had found no trace of Kadhafi when they swarmed through his compound the day before.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011