TRIPOLI: Fighters streamed into Tripoli as Muammar Kadhafi’s forces
collapsed and crowds took to the streets to celebrate, tearing down
posters of the Libyan leader.
According to the media reports, a
convoy of rebels entered a western neighbourhood of the city, firing
their weapons into the air. Rebels said the whole of the city was under
their control except Gaddafi’s Bab Al-Aziziya-Jazeera stronghold.
Kadhafi
made two audio addresses over state television calling on Libyans to
fight off the rebels. "I am afraid if we don’t act, they will burn
Tripoli," he said. "There will be no more water, food, electricity or
freedom."
Kadhafi , a colourful and often brutal autocrat who
has ruled Libya for over 40 years, said he was breaking out weapons
stores to arm the population. His spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, predicted
a violent reckoning by the rebels.
"A massacre will be
committed inside Tripoli if one side wins now, because the rebels have
come with such hatred, such vendetta...Even if the leader leaves or
steps down now, there will be a massacre."
NATO, which has backed the rebels with a bombing campaign, said the transition of power in Libya must be peaceful.
After
a six-month civil war, the fall of Tripoli came quickly, with a
carefully orchestrated uprising launched on Saturday night to coincide
with the advance of rebel troops on three fronts. Fighting broke out
after the call to prayer from the minarets of the mosques. Online
