Libyan rebels enter Tripoli, say Gaddafi's son arrested
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/5483428/Libyan-rebels-enter-Tripoli-say-Gaddafis-so...LATEST: A Libyan rebel leader says Muammar Gaddafi's son and one-time heir apparent Seif al-Islam has been arrested.
Sidiq al-Kibir, the rebel leadership council's representative for the capital Tripoli, confirmed the arrest to The Associated Press this morning (NZ time) but did not give any further details.
The arrest claims come as Gaddafi's regime seens to be crumbling as hundreds of euphoric rebels overran a major military base defending the capital, carted away truckloads of weapons and raced to the outskirts of Tripoli with virtually no resistance.
The rebels' surprising and speedy leap forward, after six months of largely deadlocked civil war, was packed into just a few dramatic hours. During yesterday (NZ time) they advanced 32 kilometres to the edge of Tripoli and this morning (NZ time), Associated Press reported the rebels had entered and were within four kilometres of the city centre.
AP reporters with the rebels said they met little resistance as Gaddafi's defenders appeared to melt away in a dramatic turning of the tides in the six-month-old civil war. The rebels took control of one neighbourhood, Ghot Shaal, on the western edge of the city. They set up checkpoints as rebel trucks rolled into Tripoli.
One of the rebels, Mohammed al-Zawi, 30, said he was in a convoy of more than 10 trucks that entered Ghot Shaal. He said they progressed as far as the neighbourhood of Girgash, about two kilometres from Green Square, where Gadhafi supporters have gathered nightly throughout the uprising to rally for their leader of more than 40 years.
He said the rebels came under fire from a sniper on a rooftop in the neighbourhood.
"They will enter Green Square tonight, God willing," al-Zawi said.
In their race to Tripoli, rebels freed several hundred prisoners from a regime lockup. The fighters and the prisoners - many looking weak and dazed and showing scars and bruises from beatings - embraced and wept with joy.
Thousands of jubilant civilians rushed out of their homes to cheer the long convoys of pickup trucks packed with rebel fighters shooting in the air. Some were hoarse, shouting: "We are coming for you, frizz-head," a mocking nickname for Gaddafi. In villages along the way that fell to the rebels one after another, mosque loudspeakers blared "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great."
"We are going to sacrifice our lives for freedom," said Nabil al-Ghowail, a 30-year-old dentist holding a rifle in the streets of Janzour, a suburb just 8km west of Tripoli. Heavy gunfire erupted nearby.
As town after town fell and Gaddafi forces melted away, the mood turned euphoric. Some shouted: "We are getting to Tripoli tonight." Others were shooting in the air, honking horns and yelling "Allahu Akbar."
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Inside Tripoli, widespread clashes erupted for a second day between rebel "sleeper cells" and Gaddafi loyalists. Rebels fighter who spoke to relatives in Tripoli by phone said hundreds rushed into the streets in anti-regime protests in several neighbourhoods.
Libyan state television aired an angry audio message from Gaddafi Sunday night, urging families in Tripoli to arm themselves and fight for the capital.
"The time is now to fight for your politics, your oil, your land," he said. "I am with you in Tripoli - together until the ends of the earth," Gaddafi shouted.
The day's first breakthrough came when hundreds of rebels fought their way into a major symbol of the Gaddafi regime - the base of the elite 32nd Brigade commanded by Gaddafi's son, Khamis. Fighters said they met with little resistance.
Hundreds of rebels cheered wildly and danced as they took over the compound filled with eucalyptus trees, raising their tricolour from the front gate and tearing down a large billboard of Gaddafi.
Inside, they cracked open wooden crates labelled "Libyan Armed Forces" and loaded their trucks with huge quantities of munitions. One of the rebels carried off a tube of grenades, while another carted off two mortars.
"This is the wealth of the Libyan people that he was using against us," said Ahmed al-Ajdal, 27, pointing to his haul. "Now we will use it against him and any other dictator who goes against the Libyan people."
One group started up a tank, drove it out of the gate, crushing the median of the main highway and driving off toward Tripoli. Rebels celebrated the capture with deafening amounts of celebratory gunfire, filling the air with smoke.
Across the street, rebels raided a huge warehouse, making off with hundreds of crates of rockets, artillery shells and large-calibre ammunition. The warehouse had once been using to storage packaged foods, and in the back, cans of beans were still stacked toward the ceiling.
The prisoners had been held in the walled compound and when the rebels rushed in, they freed more than 300 of them.
"We were sitting in our cells when all of a sudden we heard lots of gunfire and people yelling 'Allahu Akbar.' We didn't know what was happening, and then we saw rebels running in and saying 'We're on your side.' And they let us out," said 23-year-old Majid al-Hodeiri from Zawiya. He said he was captured four months ago by Gaddafi's forces and taken to base. He said he was beaten and tortured while under detention.
Many of the prisoners looked disoriented as they stopped at a gathering place for fighter
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