Tripoli, Libyan Rebels | featured news

Fighters for Libya's new leadership managed to take over the port in Sirte on Tuesday morning, a senior military commander in Tripoli said.

There is no water, scarcely any gas or fresh food, and only intermittent power, but Tripoli’s heart is slowly beginning to beat again. Streets in the Libyan capital were mostly quiet Saturday, and there were no signs of snipers as the city’s new rulers eliminated a last pocket of loyalist resistance on the road to the international airport.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi called on his supporters on Thursday to march on Tripoli and "purify" the capital of rebels, who he denounced as "rats, crusaders and unbelievers."

The son and heir apparent of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, Seif al-Islam, resurfaced free and defiant early Tuesday a day after rebels claimed to have captured him, boasting in a bizarre reappearance that his father's loyalists still control parts of Tripoli and would crush the rebellion.

With Libyan rebels reaching Tripoli, the endgame is at hand. Intense fighting may lie ahead, but three of Moammar Gadhafi's sons are reportedly in custody and the power of the regime appears to be rapidly eroding.

Explosions and gunfire rocked Tripoli overnight, after days of battlefield defeats left Muammar Gaddafi's government and troops penned ever more tightly in the besieged capital by a rebel advance.

Libyan rebels said on Monday they had seized a second strategic town near Tripoli within 24 hours, completing the encirclement of the capital in the boldest advances of their six-month-old uprising against Muammar Gaddafi.