Brother Muammar Gaddafi was a hunted man yesterday as ordinary Libyans jumped onto the streets when rebels hitherto fighting outside the capital made a triumphant entry into Tripoli, signaling the beginning of the end of a longstanding dictator.
They had cause to relish the unfolding moments following the realization that eventually, change was dawning on their country as the 42-year-old regime of Brother Muammar Gaddafi reached a tipping point.
Gaddafi�s most favoured son and acclaimed successor, Al Saif-Islam, notorious for his acerbic tongue when referring to his compatriots undertaking the putsch, was the most prominent to be captured by the rebels.
His brother Mohammed was captured while talking to the Al Jazeera news network as rebels were firing into the house. He was overheard reciting the Islamic creed known as Shahada, after which his voice went dead as he was whisked away by his captors.
Also arrested was a third son, Saadi. All three sons are now in the hands of opposition fighters who their father had variously described as �rats, cockroaches, drug addicts and persons high on booze�.
Saif Al-Islam
The rebels seized control of the state radio station and the state TV�s transmission was jammed, according to late reports.
News about the rebels� descent on Tripoli forced a downward spiral of oil prices on the international market yesterday as speculators vouched confidently that civil war was no longer imminent as the Gaddafi regime was fast crumbling.
Libya provides 2% of the world�s supply of oil and so the soothing news was welcomed by many dealers across the globe who commenced discussing the next step towards the restoration of democracy.
Conflicting reports about where Gaddafi was hiding raged for most parts of the day and even head of the Transitional National Council, Abdul Jalil Mustapha, could not tell where the dictator was.
While some said he was holed up in a bunker in Libya like Saddam Hussein and Laurent Gbagbo, others said he had escaped out of the country and out of the reach of the rebels.
Abdul Jalil Mustafa, during a press conference yesterday, warned against revenge, threatening to resign if that happened.
In the first of his speeches on state television on Sunday, though, Gaddafi was still insisting the rebels � whom he described as �infidels,� �traitors� and �gangsters� � would fail and vowed not to back down. The picture of Tripoli was a mixed one, with some neighbourhoods supporting and others resisting the rebellion. With some 80% of Tripoli in the hands of the rebels as at yesterday, the Gaddafi compound was the scene of a fierce fight as was the hotel where a number of international journalists were.
The bulk of the fighters that descended on Tripoli hailed from the Mafusa Mountains, who are mostly Berbers, not Arabs. The Berbers provided the bulk of the attackers on Tripoli, with Zahwiya serving as a staging point.
Abdul Jaloud, Gaddafi�s deputy, already resting in Italy where his request for political asylum was obliged, told newsmen that he did not think his former boss would surrender or commit suicide as being speculated in some quarters.
Gaddafi had told his compatriots in a telephone speech encouraging them to fight and refuse to let Tripoli be destroyed as that would rob them of their comforts.
Italian officialdom said the regime of Gaddafi was over as did British Prime Minister David Cameron. The Italians said the unfolding development in Libya was a clear message to dictators that one day they would face the International Criminal Court (ICC) to account for their deeds.
The ICC is already negotiating with the transitional council�s leadership for the hand-over of Saif Al Islam to face charges following the June issuance of the tribunal�s arrest warrant for the dictator and his son Saif Al-Islam and one other person.
The accused are expected to be tried in The Hague but the rebels are not too enthused about releasing them to The Hague.
The Arab Spring is a step closer to freedom and democracy free from Gaddafi and terror, was the remark of David Cameron. As for US President Obama, he said, �Libya has slipped from the grips of a tyrant.�
Despite Sunday�s gains however, fighting raged yesterday with the frontline receding as the resistance by Gaddafi forces became deadly.
Post-Gaddafi regime change and its accompanying challenges remained an issue for political commentators across the world. The fear of bloodshed emanating from the challenge of who leads is very much a worry for observers who think that could derail the peace of a Libya without Gaddafi.
Libyan state TV went off air yesterday as rebels armed with AK47s stormed the country�s broadcaster and Colonel Gaddafi cowered in hiding.�This is the hour of victory,� he said. �This hour is the hour of defiance.�
The rebels said that they ambushed the concrete building in Tripoli and killed the soldiers that had been guarding it.
The station has been used to broadcast propaganda messages from Gaddafi since the unrest began on February 17 and the loss of the station is a major blow for the leader.
�The revolutionaries stormed the television building � after killing the soldiers surrounding it. It is now under their control,� the spokesman said. He was speaking after television screens airing the Jamahiriyah station went blank.
The BBC monitoring service confirmed that TV screens across the country had gone blank earlier yesterday.
Residents said that fighters had attempted to scale the walls of Gaddafi�s compound but were met by a wall of gunfire. The Libyan leader still controls the Rixos area in the south west of Tripoli and mercenaries are continuing to fight for him. His youngest son, Khamis al-Gaddafi, is understood to be spearheading a fight-back.
Nouri Echtiwi, a rebel spokesman, said: �Four hours of calm followed the street celebrations. Then tanks and pick-up trucks with heavy machine guns mounted on the back came out of Bab al-Aziziya, the last of Gadhafi�s bastions, and started firing and shelling Assarin Street and al-Khalifa area. They fired randomly in all directions whenever they heard gunfire.�
As the dictator�s regime appeared to be on the brink of collapse following 46 NATO airstrikes yesterday, independent Libyan television claimed the tyrant had �run away like a coward�.
Gaddafi�s former right-hand man Abdel-Salam Jalloud said that the leader was �not brave enough to do a Hitler� and kill himself.
�I think it�s impossible that he�ll surrender,� Jalloud told Italian television. �He is not like Hitler, who had the courage to kill himself.�
Jalloud became the latest defector when he fled Tripoli for Tunisia on Friday and turned up in Rome.
He said that his former colleague had �10 days at most� left in power.
�I don�t think the evolution of the situation in Tripoli will allow him to survive. I believe the regime has a week left, 10 days at most. And maybe even less.
�He has no way of leaving Tripoli. All the roads are blocked. He can only leave with an international agreement and I think that door is closed.�
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