Gaddafi’s fate unknown as stronghold falls to rebels
Rebel fighters streamed through the sprawling Bab al-Aziziya headquarters compound, firing in the air in celebration after hours of heavy clashes. But it was unclear whether the “Brother Leader” or his sons were still somewhere in the complex’s maze of buildings and bunkers.
Defensive fire died away and hundreds of jubilant rebels poured in. Some smashed a statue of Gaddafi. Others hunted through dozens of buildings, unchallenged, seizing weaponry and vehicles. The rebels’ envoy to the United Nations said the area was “totally in the hands of the revolutionaries.”
The Russian head of the World Chess Federation, who visited Gaddafi in Tripoli in June, said he had received a call from him yesterday afternoon in which Gaddafi said he was still in the capital. He “is in Tripoli, he is alive and healthy and is prepared to fight to the end,” Kirsan Ilyumzhinov told Reuters.
The rebels’ envoy in Rome, Hafed Gaddur, said: “It seems clear that he is confined to his bunker complex.”
“We thought Tripoli would be liberated in one month or perhaps even two months, instead that happened in just a few hours, a day, so we’ve made great progress,” he told Reuters.
Western governments, which have backed disparate opposition groups, said they could not be sure where the 69-year-old leader was but urged him to surrender after six months of civil war which have put an end to his four decades of absolute power.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy said after speaking to US president Barack Obama that the end of Gaddafi’s rule was “inevitable and near”.
Nato, which declined to confirm reports that its air forces bombed Gaddafi’s compound to aid the rebels, said Gaddafi’s whereabouts were unclear but no longer a major concern.
In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman said he believed Gaddafi was in Libya and his forces remained a threat. He also said the US was monitoring chemical weapons sites in Libya, amid worries that groups hostile to Western interests could try to seize stocks once built up by Gaddafi.
Speaking after Gaddafi’s son and long-time heir-apparent Saif al-Islam confounded rebel claims of his capture by appearing to journalists at the Bab al-Aziziya compound yesterday, several analysts said the credibility of the disparate opposition movement had suffered a serious setback.
Though the credibility of Saif al-Islam’s claims that his father’s supporters were winning the war was also threadbare, confusion among the rebels, who seemed to have allowed two of Gaddafi’s sons to escape on Monday, embarrassed their backers.
Noman Benotman, senior analyst at Britain’s Quilliam think tank and an associate of Gaddafi’s former spy chief, said: “Gaddafi is banking on the rebels making a mess of Tripoli and causing chaos. He is relying on them to behave badly.
“They want rival militia zones to start springing up... That’s why it’s critical for the rebels to get their act together.”
Residents, many of whom had taken to the streets on Sunday to celebrate the end of Gaddafi’s 42-year rule, stayed indoors as the irregular rebel armies that swept the capital ran into resistance from sharpshooters, tanks and other heavy weaponry.
The lack of clear control, however, has revived concerns the sprawling, thinly populated desert state could fall into the kind of instability that has beset Iraq since Saddam Hussein’s overthrow. Gaddafi loyalists and anti-Western Islamists could exploit Libya’s ethnic, tribal and political divisions.
Rebel officials say they have a force ready to impose order in the capital, as they have generally done in parts of the country they have taken since February. But it is not yet clear how they will handle traditional east-west divisions if they consolidate their grip on the country.
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