Libya: rebel forces reach heart of Tripoli - live updates
• Gaddafi's location unknown
• Vast majority of Tripoli under rebel control
• Fighting continues in Libyan capital
• Sons Mohammed and Saif are under arrest
• Syrian activists say it is Assad's turn next
• Read a summary of today's key events
5.13pm: This is David Batty and I'll be taking over the live blog for the rest of the evening. You can follow me on Twitter @David_Batty
My colleague Luke Harding has sent through his latest dispatch from Tripoli where he has been talking to the inhabitants about the rebels' seizure of most of the city:
In areas liberated by the rebels the mood was one of euphoria. Locals stood on street corners, flashing V-signs as opposition militia from towns across Libya swept past. Women cheered and whooped from upper stories; by the afternoon mosques were broadcasting polite requests not to fire in the air but to conserve ammunition instead. Nobody listened. From checkpoints hastily set up fighters continuously let off a festive pop-pop.
In the district of Gurji householders were sitting on the pavement, smiling and still evidently stunned by the dramatic events of the previous 12 hours. "We are with Cameron and Sarkozy 100%," Walid Margani, a 45-year-old school inspector, offered spontaneously,
in comments that will doubtless delight Downing Street. "They helped us in having a new life. For 42 years we've had no rights."In a defiant audio broadcast Gaddafi's had denounced his enemies – who began their uprising against him on February 17 – as "rats". "He's the rat," Margani said. "We have not seen him on the TV for more than four months. He's been hiding like a rat underground." What should happen to him now? "We don't want to hear his name any more. We want him to be judged and to disappear," Ahmed Zidan, 45, said.
One Tripoli resident, Tariq Hussain, 32, however, admitted to feeling a bit ambiguous about the rebel's victory. "I'm afraid of them, to be honest," he said. Others, however, were jubilant. "Forty two years too much. It's game-over Gaddafi," Abdul Mohammad said, as a group of teenagers stomped on a green Gaddafi baseball hat.
"There's no person here supporting Gaddafi," Nasar al-Fahdi, a translator explained. "It was just about fear. When someone says you have to support him, and he has a whole army behind him, what can you say?" One waiter also admitted he had mixed feelings. Surveying the destruction, he added:'There's not going to be much money around here."
4.55pm: Here is an evening summary:
• Muammar Gaddafi is still in hiding, his whereabouts unknown, as the Libyan rebels tighten their grip in Tripoli after sweeping into the capital over the weekend. Fighting continues in some areas of the capital, but Gaddafi's forces are said to only control small areas. The rebels' sudden success has variously been put down to Nato's help, the strength of the forces in the western mountains, and under-reported anti-Gaddafi feeling in the capital. Nato says it will continue its air campaign until all pro-Gaddafi forces have surrendered or returned to their barracks.
• Gaddafi's sons Saif al-Islam and Mohammed have been arrested. Reports that another son, Al-Saadi, had also been captured, could not be confirmed. The international criminal court said it was in discussions with the rebel National Transitional Council about apprehending Saif, for whom it has a warrant out on war crimes charges. His father and Abdullah al-Senussi, Gaddafi's head of military intelligence, are wanted by the court too. The Guardian's Chris Stephen predicted division among the rebels over whether to hand Muammar Gaddafi to the international criminal court or not.
• The head of the rebel National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, said the NTC would move to Tripoli from Benghazi in the east when a new constitution has been drawn up. He urged opposition supporters to stay within the law, to treat prisoners of war well and not take justice into their own hands, and said he wanted to see a "fair trial" for Gaddafi.
• There was fierce fighting between pro- and anti-Gaddafi forces in Zlitan, 80 miles (128km) east of Tripoli.
• France aims to host an international meeting as soon as next week to discuss what happens next in Libya.
• David Cameron, the British prime minister, said he believed Nato's decision to intervene in Libya had been vindicated.
• In Syria, activists are hoping that the fall of Gaddafi will lead to their own president, Bashar al-Assad, standing down. Crowds there chanted: "Gaddafi is gone, now it's your turn, Bashar!" There is vague speculation the international community may now pursue a harder line against the Syrian government, in the wake of seeming success in Libya.
4.38pm: Chris Stephen writes from Misrata with news of how the National Transitional Council, which has been based in Benghazi in the east of Libya, now plans to assert itself in Tripoli. Chris says it is far from clear that the NTC's authority will be welcomed in the capital.
The undeclared aim of the arrival by sea of 200 fighters from Misrata in Tripoli over the weekend was to help the NTC establish an armed presence there. Today a group of leaders from Tripoli's rebels who are loyal to the NTC were meeting military leaders in Misrata to co-ordinate strategy. No word of their discussions was made public but it is understood that the NTC is keen to get a firm security presence in the capital.
Factionalism has been a key problem among Libya's rebels in this six month war, with the still unexplained murder of army commander Abdul Fatah Younis seeing units loyal to him coming back to the front and threatening violence against NTC officials they blame for the killing. Their anger was assuaged only with the appointment of a new army commander, Suleiman Obedi, who is from the same Obedi tribe as Younis. Another split has been between Misrata and Benghazi. After the assassination, Misrata rebel army spokesman Ibrahim Betalmal underlined to the Guardian that Misratan units did not accept orders from NTC military command, while continuing to remain on paper loyal to the NTC. The NTC has included members from different parts of Libya in an attempt to present itself as a government in exile, but those members were chosen by Mustafa Abdul Jalil and his Benghazi-based colleagues, and many parts of Libya, including Misrata, the third city, and the capital, may refuse to accept that these appointees represent them.
The litmus test of NTC authority will be the ability of Jalil to establish control over rebel forces now spreading out across Tripoli, and whether the Gaddafi regime, likely soon to be shorn of its leader, tries to reestablish itself as a political force.
4.33pm: Reuters is reporting that Muammar Gaddafi's forces now appear to hold only small areas of Tripoli, including the leader's Bab al-Aziziya headquarters. But the Associated Press reported Moammar al-Warfali, whose family home is next to the Gaddafi compound, as saying: "When I climb the stairs and look at it from the roof, I see nothing at Bab al-Aziziya. Nato has demolished it all and nothing remains."
Gaddafi's prime minister, Al Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, is in Tunisia, Reuters reports. Rebels say they have seized the transmitters of state TV and that is why it has gone off the air.
The Associated Press said "euphoric residents" were celebrating in Tripoli's Green Square. But many other residents remained indoors and many shops were shuttered up. No looting was reported.
A rebel official in the opposition capital Benghazi said some of the NTC's representatives had visited Tripoli in recent days to make contact with Gaddafi loyalists in order to avert a breakdown of order in the capital.
A government official told Reuters that 376 people on both sides had been killed in Tripoli and 1,000 wounded, but it was not clear how the figures were arrived at.
South Africa has denied it is planning to shelter Gaddafi.
NTC head Mustafa Abdel Jalil said the new government would favour foreign countries that had supported the rebellion as competition for Libya's oil and gas seems certain to heat up.
Abu Dhabi's crown prince has phoned Jalil to congratulate him on victory. Turkey's foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, is due to travel to Beghazi tomorrow. He said the likely end of Gaddafi's rule was a lesson for Middle Eastern leaders who ignored the demands of their people.
Jordan has recognised the NTC as the sole representative of the Libyan people.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, called on Gaddafi loyalists "to turn their back on the criminal and cynical blindness of their leader by immediately ceasing fire, giving up their arms and turning themselves in to the legitimate Libyan authorities".
Barack Obama, his US counterpart, said: "Muammar Gaddafi and his regime need to recognise that their rule has come to an end."
The US said today it did not plan to send any ground forces to assist with international peacekeeping in Libya. Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan said he believed Gaddafi was still in the country, but gave no further details.
Nato says it will continue its air campaign until all pro-Gaddafi forces have surrendered or returned to their barracks. Nato warplanes have hit at least 40 targets in and around Tripoli in the past two days the highest number on a single geographic location since the bombing started more than five months ago, the alliance said.
The World Bank said it would "re-engage" with Libya as soon as it could be "helpful".
4.14pm: Deputy Libyan UN ambassador Ibrahim Dabashi, who sides with the rebels, says he thinks most of the people fighting on the Gaddafi side now are fighting for their own safety rather than because they believe in Gaddafi. As soon as Gaddafi is captured or killed this will be over, Dabashi says. He says he thinks the rebels now control 90% of the country.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the prosecutor of the international criminal court, has spoken to representatives of the National Transitional Council today. In a statement, the ICC said "further conversations" would decide how to implement "the possibility to apprehend and surrender to the court" Muammar and Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, and Abdullah al-Senussi, Gaddafi's head of military intelligence. Arrest warrants against the three were issued on 27 June for "inhuman" war crimes. The statement also mentioned that the three may be "investigate[d] and prosecute[d] … in Libya for crimes committed previously."
4.03pm: The Associated Press has put up this guide to the rebel attack on Tripoli.
3.57pm: Al-Arabiya is reporting that another of Muammar Gaddafi's sons, former footballer Al-Saadi, has been captured.
3.42pm: Thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets across Syria today after a televised appearance by Bashar al-Assad, shouting for the president to step down and chanting: "Gaddafi is gone, now it's your turn, Bashar!"
3.31pm: Egypt is set to recognise the rebel-led National Transitional Council as the legitimate government of neighbouring Libya, Jack Shenker reports from Cairo. Foreign minister Mohammed Kamel Amr made the announcement at a press conference in Cairo today, as the last vestiges of Gaddafi's regime continued to crumble in Tripoli.
Egypt's military junta has been in something of a bind since the Libyan revolution broke out in February, torn between the need to offer public support to a revolt that was partially inspired by Egypt's own political upheaval, and private concerns over the possibility of violence and refugees spilling across the border at a time of heightened instability at home. Despite Cairo being home to the Arab League - which provided limited support for the Nato intervention - Egypt's transitional rulers declined to offer any military resources to the Libyan war effort, prompting some domestic criticism.
3.27pm: More on Abdelbaset al-Megrahi (see 3.12pm) from Owen Bowcott. The US justice department is still interested in bringing the convicted Lockerbie bomber to trial despite the fact that he has already appeared in a UK court.
"The majority of those [on the Pan Am flight] were US citizens and there's a strong interest in the US to achieve justice. It was an act of terror," Stephen Rapp, the US ambassador-at-large for war crimes, told the Guardian last month. "There's jurisdiction in the UK and US over individuals who were involved. I can't speak for the [US] department of justice, but there would be an interest in the US … in continuing the investigation and going beyond Mr Megrahi and determining whether other individuals [were involved]."
3.13pm: Rebel gains in Tripoli get the Taiwanese news animation treatment from NMA.
3.12pm: Lockerbie campaigners fear Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's safety is at risk from the rebels because the convicted Lockerbie bomber's close ties to the Gaddafi regime mean he would be a great prize for the rebellion, reports Scotland correspondent Severin Carrell.
A spokesman for East Renfrewshire council said: "Right up to this point, there has been no breach of the release conditions and nothing up to know which gives us cause for concern. The conditions in the country put us into the position where we will need to contact him immediately to make sure we can still maintain that contact."
Two years ago, Megrahi was freed on licence from Greenock prison because he has terminal prostate cancer. Scottish ministers claimed in August 2009 he had about three months to live; he has now lived eight times longer than that and celebrated the second anniversary of his
release yesterday.
3.06pm: A UN human rights expert says Arab nations agreed today to demand that Syria allow an international probe within its borders to see whether crimes against humanity have been committed. Jean Ziegler, a member of the UN human rights council's advisory committee, told the Associated Press that Kuwait will make the demand on behalf of Arab nations during the council's special session today.
3.02pm: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the Libyan leader's son, could be tried in Libya and not handed over to the international criminal court in the Hague, Libya's rebel envoy to Paris has said. Mansour Saif al-Nasr told Reuters:
Everything is possible. It is up to the NTC [National Transitional Council] to decide. It is possible that he will be handed over to the ICC but it's also possible he won't.
Saif and his brother Mohammed were both arrested by the rebels as they swept through the west of Tripoli yesterday.
Al-Nasr said he did not know where Muammar Gaddafi was, but said he would be brought to justice.
It is finished. Since yesterday we have turned the dark page of this dictatorship.
He ruled out the idea of a UN force providing security and humanitarian aid over the coming weeks and said the new Libyan government would welcome the participation of many Libyans, not just those connected to the NTC and its base in Benghazi. "Everything will be open to those who have not been tainted by blood," he said.
2.52pm: Luke Harding describes a gun battle on the Tripoli seafront in his latest audio dispatch.
Speaking above the sound of mortar shells, Luke says:
There is now a gun battle going on ... with the rebels firing across from where I am, trying to flush out pockets of resistance from Gaddafi guys. There doesn't seem to be very much answering fire, but since we last talked the mood has grown ugly again. It is like flicking a switch here; one minute it is flashing V for victory signs, but now the fighting is intensifying ... It is a fluid situation here ... I suspect we are going to have several hours of fighting now.
2.48pm: Libyan state TV has gone off air, Reuters is reporting.
2.45pm: At least three international broadcasters ended up with teams in Green Square in the early hours of Monday morning, all led by female correspondents, my colleague Matt Wells writes from New York. Sky's Alex Crawford was followed into Green Square by crews from Al-Jazeera English and CNN: Zeina Khodr of AJE reached the square just before 2am local time, and Sara Sidner of CNN got there shortly afterwards. Sidner was forced to pull back to the outskirts of the city when the mood of celebration in Green Square turned tense.
Kodhr said her colleagues in the Rixos hotel, where international journalists sanctioned by the Gaddafi regime have been based, were still holed up there. "They are not able to leave the hotel because there are Gaddafi men in the building and around the area. They have been trapped there even before the rebels advanced into the city," she reported.
2.42pm: Chris Stephen in Misrata reports on fierce fighting taking place today in Zlitan, 80 miles (128km) east of Tripoli, with government forces continuing to offer resistance as rebel forces push towards the Libyan capital. Chris writes:
Government forces dug in along a line of hills south of Zlitan are bombarding the town, one shell killing a six-year-old-child and wounding his three-year-old brother.
The wounded three-year-old, Mohammed Halifa, was this morning lying in a cot in Misrata's Mujamma Aledat hospital with both arms and hands bandaged, and a dressing on a wound caused by a shell splinter in the abdomen. He was sedated but appeared confused, trying to move his heavily bandaged arms and mouthing words.
"He was in the house when the [mortar] came in," said surgeon Mohammed Ahmed. "I don't know why he [Muammar Gaddafi] is still killing. Gaddafi is lost, but these people are still killing, I don't know why." Dr Ahmed said the boy's injuries did not appear life threatening.
Sources in Misrata, the base of the rebel force fighting in Zlitan, said they had hoped to send a truce unit across the lines to meet with government forces to discuss a possible surrender.
Such plans appear to be on hold as rebel reinforcements in black-painted jeeps mounting machine guns and recoil-less rifles drove at speed up the main highway to Zlitan today.
Misrata, along with Benghazi, saw a night of wild celebrations with fireworks and machine-gun fire into the air starting late yesterday on news that rebel forces had entered Tripoli. Hospital officials said nine people were treated for minor burns from fireworks some of which exploded amid the crowds.
Misrata military council confirmed that a unit of 200 rebel fighters landed by sea at Tripoli over the weekend, bringing weapons and ammunition for rebel fighters and including a team of medics.
2.39pm: Opposition activist Ashour Shamis tells Sky News Nato's military role must end after Gaddafi is overthrown, but co-operation between Nato and the new Libyan regime will be strong. He is asked if former Gaddafi officials will take part in the new administration. Anyone not involved in killing and other crimes is welcome, Shamis says.
2.34pm: Sky News emerged as the runaway winner in the battle of the broadcasters for its coverage overnight of the rebels entering Tripoli, MediaGuardian reports.
While journalists from the BBC and other networks were contained within the city's Rixos Hotel by armed guards loyal to Gadaffi, Alex Crawford, Sky's special correspondent, scooped all her rivals by broadcasting dramatic live footage from within the advancing rebel convoy.
Her bravery won legions of fans. At one point on Sunday night, Crawford was trending worldwide on Twitter, while Baroness Ashton, the EU's foreign policy chief, said her reporting was "quite astonishing".
2.34pm: Opposition activist Ashour Shamis is asked on Sky News whether Muammar Gaddafi could face the death penalty if he faces trial in Libya. Libya does have the death penalty, Shamis, says, so "you never know".
2.31pm: There is heavy fighting in Zlitan, where the rebels are pushing west and south and meeting resistance and artillery fire, reports Chris Stephen from Misrata.
1.57pm: Jalil urges opposition supporters to act within the law, and expresses concern about the actions of some.
The NTC will move to Tripoli when a constitution has been drawn up.
1.49pm: Jalil confirms that the rebels do not have control of all of Tripoli and the surrounding areas.
He also confirms Gaddafi's sons Mohammed and Saif al-Islam are being detained by the rebels.
Jalil reveals that one of Mohammed Gaddafi's guards was killed during his capture, but he insisted that Mohammed and his family were not hurt.
On Muammar Gaddafi, Jalil says: "We hope he is captured alive so that a fair trial can take place ... I have no idea how he will defend himself against these crimes."
1.39pm: Mustafa Abdul Jalil (left), leader of Libya's National Transitional Council, is giving a press conference in Benghazi. He thanks the international community for supporting Libyans and preventing casualties.
He pays tribute to the "heroic efforts" of fighters in Misrata and the western mountains.
Speaking through a translator, Jalil says: "God has chosen that Gaddafi's end should be at the hands of these youth, so that they may join the Arab uprising. I declare that Gaddafi's rule is at end. The future will not be a bed of roses ... I call on all Libyans to act with responsibility and not take justice into their own hands ... treating prisoners of war well and kindly ... We all have the right to live with dignity in this nation."
1.29pm: In Syria there appears to be more evidence that the government's decision to allow a UN mission to enter the country is backfiring.
The regime was hoping that mission would present a PR opportunity, but video today showed crowds of protesters greeting what appear to be UN vehicles in the central city of Homs. The crowd can be heard chanting for the over throw of the regime. As they surround the UN vehicles, some protesters hold up banners in English. One reads: 'SOS', another says: 'We will never give up until we get our freedom'.
1.22pm: Here is a lunchtime summary:
• The vast majority of Tripoli is under rebel control after opposition fighters swept into the capital over the weekend. The rebels' flag is now hanging over Green Square in the city centre. The rebels' sudden success has variously been put down to Nato's help, the strength of the forces in the western mountains, and the under-reported anti-Gaddafi feeling in the capital.
• Fierce fighting continues, however, in areas of the Libyan capital, and the battle for Tripoli is not over yet.
• Nato does not know where Muammar Gaddafi is, David Cameron reported. Gaddafi's former close aide Abdel-Salam Jalloud said he thought the Libyan leader would not surrender or kill himself. The Guardian's Chris Stephen predicted division among the rebels over whether to hand him to the international criminal court or not. World leaders are calling on Gaddafi to stand down. His son Saif al-Islam has been arrested and another son, Mohammed is reported to be under house arrest. The home of his daughter Aisha was stormed yesterday.
• France aims to host an international meeting as soon as next week to discuss what happens next in Libya.
• Cameron said he believed Nato's decision to intervene in Libya had been vindicated.
• In Syria, activists are hoping that the fall of Gaddafi will lead to their own president, Bashar al-Assad, standing down. There is vague speculation the international community may now pursue a harder line against the Syrian government, in the wake of seeming success in Libya.
1.07pm: Chris Stephen writes from Misrata to say he can foresee the rebels falling out amongst themselves over whether to hand Muammar Gaddafi to the international criminal court, or give him an "off with his head" type of trial in Libya.
Chris says he feels the key to the rebels' rapid success over the last few days was Nato. Gaddafi could not replace the kit being blown up every day by Nato raids, but instead of shortening his lines, he kept them in place. The rebels played a subsidiary role, says Chris: their own poorly planned attacks helped with attrition and the other key role was that by forcing Gaddafi to defend the front lines they made Gaddafi concentrate his tanks and guns on the frontlines, giving Nato handy targets.
Chris says the rebel National Transitional Council has a problem with legitimacy. It took power in a revolution, but if it does anything certain tribes or sections of the population do not like, the result will be protests claiming they are dictators. It will be interesting, Chris says, to see in the coming weeks whether the NTC brings forces from outside Tripoli in to control the capital.
Chris also says he has heard that Nato suspects the Gaddafi regime put its communications base in the basement of the Rixos hotel where all the western journalists are staying, knowing Nato would not bomb it.
1.00pm: Nick Clegg (left), the British deputy prime minister, has given a speech this morning on the Arab spring. He said this about what was happening in Libya:
The advances made by the Free Libya Forces in Tripoli would have been unthinkable just a few months ago. Unimaginable, even, for the generations of young Libyans who have never known a world without Gaddafi. Now, that world is within their reach. The momentum for change is breathtaking and, for the cynics who said change wasn't possible, who had written off the Libyan uprising, written off the Arab spring, clearly, they were wrong. The movement for freedom hasn't been stamped out. It's alive and kicking, and it's here to stay.
He justifies Nato's intervention in Libya in humanitarian terms:
In those early months, had Gaddafi been allowed to massacre protesters in Benghazi, what message would that have sent to protesters in Manama? Sanaa? Damascus? And, today, as the colonel's regime crumbles around him, as the people of Libya fight to take back their country, what message does that send to other dictators who ignore their people's demands?
Clegg also said that the UK was "leading efforts to agree a new round of EU sanctions" against the Syrian government.
12.50pm: The LA Times looks at the importance of the rebels in Libya's western mountains to the fight against Muammar Gaddafi.
The uprising in the Nafusa Mountains was so little noticed early on that the fighting often barely merited mention as the world focused on dramatic events in and around Benghazi and Misurata.
In the end, however, the western rebels' tenacity and proximity to Tripoli seemed crucial in breaking down what the government had long boasted was a virtually impregnable wall of security around the capital.
12.46pm: On Sky News a commentator is emphasising how much potential Libya has for providing gas to Europe. There are already supply lines to Italy, he says.
12.45pm: Linsey Hilsum of Channel 4 News tweets:
Half a dozen vehicles full of women and children driving past, giving "v" for victory signs and cheering #Libya #Tripoli
And Sky's Alex Crawford reports from Tripoli on the medical situation there:
Sound of gunfire and shelling continues. Docs appeal for pressure on both sides to stop attacking the hospital. Horrendous conditions here
12.34pm: Muammar Gaddafi's former right hand man, Abdel-Salam Jalloud, who flew to Italy on Saturday after defecting, has said he doubts Gaddafi will surrender, but has claimed he "doesn't have the courage, like Hitler, to kill himself," writes Tom Kington in Rome.
Jalloud told Italy's state TV network RAI on Sunday that at the start of the rebellion, Gaddafi had mistakenly believed he would be able to retake Misrata and Benghazi rapidly from the rebels.
Tripoli, said Jalloud, had briefly been taken over by rebels in the early stages of the uprising. "Thousands of people came out in every neighbourhood, but the regime cruelly cracked down," he said.
Sidelined by Gaddafi in 1992 after a reported falling out over policy, Jalloud claimed that he recently turned down an offer from Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam to rejoin the government. On Monday Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini said Jalloud could now play an "important" role in a post-Gaddafi administration.
In an interview with Italy's La Stampa newspaper on Monday, Frattini said Gaddafi must face trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Frattini said sources in the National Transitional Council had said that mercenaries "of various ethnicities" were currently fighting each in Tripoli for the right to loot. "They are killing each other in order to sack the city," he said.
12.23pm: There have been some interesting reports from Libyan embassies across the world:
• AP: Police have surrounded the Libyan embassy in Sarajevo after a dozen of Libyans entered the building, threw Gaddafi's pictures out of the windows, raised the rebels' tricolour flag. Former embassy employee, Libyan Amira Berma told the Associated Press that the ambassador Salem AA Finnir was a die-hard Gaddafi supporter who refuses to leave. Bosnian police are inside and around the building trying to keep the negotiations peaceful.
• AFP: The Libyan embassy in Damascus says it is siding with the National Transitional Council.
• Turkey's Hurriyet: Libyan opposition members took down the official Libyan state flag at the Libyan Embassy in Ankara and raised the National Transitional Council, or NTC, flag in its place on Monday.
• Al Arabiya: Libyan embassy in Algeria announces its loyalty to the Libyan revolutionaries.
12.04pm: The rebel flag is flying over Green Square, Luke Harding reports from Tripoli.
From where I'm standing I can see the rebel flag - the red, black and green tricolour - hanging over the Ottoman place in the centre of Green Square, as well as three giant yellow cranes which were supposed to lift a giant portrait of Gaddafi, but never did so.
This morning it has been pretty tense, but here at least it is fairly calm. I haven't been all over the city so it would be premature to say it is all over - one person said there had been fighting by a sports centre. But it seems to be isolated groups of regime loyalists who are fighting rather than a co-ordinated offensive or counter attack by Gaddafi's forces. Whereever they are they seem to have melted away at least in the centre.
I can't see any tanks at all [from the square] ... but an awful lot of debris. There is fantastic damage here ...
A lot of people seem to be in a surreal daze as if they can't quite process what's going on ... Slowly it must be sinking in to everybody here that Gaddafi is gone and he won't be coming back ... The city is waking up after an enormous hangover.
Apologies for the quality of the line.
_
11.48am: New footage from the BBC underlines that fighting is far from over. It shows a rebel convoy coming under attack from a 20mm anti-aircraft gun, on the seafront in Tripoli.
Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, who was in the convoy when it was attacked, reported: "It is clear that despite overnight celebrations this is a city that is far from safe and secure."
11.42am: The full text of Cameron's statement is now available on the Number 10 website.
11.37am: France aims to host a meeting of international partners as soon as next week to discuss what happens next in Libya, Reuters reports.
French foreign minister Alain Juppe (above left) said: "We propose an extraordinary meeting of the contact group at the highest level as soon as next week to lay out an action plan with the Libyan authorities."
French president Nicolas Sarkozy will speak by telephone later on Monday with Mahmoud Jibril, leader of Libya's National Transitional Council, and Jibril is expected in Paris "in the coming days", Juppe said
11.30am: The streets of Tripoli were deserted this morning apart from armed men at impromptu checkpoints, Robin Waudo from the International Red Cross in the Libyan capital told Peter Walker.
There is, he said, still fighting going on, with gunfire audible this morning. While at his home, near Tripoli's main court building, Waudo said, he heard heavy fighting from Saturday night onwards, and knew that rocket-propelled grenades had been used.
His organisation's priority is to distribute surgery and blood transfusion kits to hospitals and clinics. Waudo said his staff had visited one "overwhelmed" clinic where all 40 beds were full of injured people, with new arrivals being placed in nearby homes. He said:
We have credible information that there must be many people all over the city who have been affected.
11.24am: With that David Cameron finishes speaking. Here are the key points from the British PM's statement:
• The vast majority of Tripoli is under rebel control.
• Fierce fighting continues in areas of the Libyan capital.
• Nato does not know where Muammar Gaddafi is.
• Cameron believes what happens to Gaddafi should be up to the Libyan people, although he would like to see him "face justice".
• Cameron believes Nato's decision to intervene in Libya has been vindicated.
11.24am: Britain has played its role; I think we can be proud of that role, Cameron says.
11.23am: Is such intervention a model for the future?
"We have tried to learn the lessons of the past", in terms of doing things "legally" through the UN and not using ground troops, Cameron says – seemingly like Ed Miliband using Iraq as a comparison.
11.22am: There is still much more to be done. It is still a difficult situation in Tripoli, Cameron says.
This is about a country in north Africa that wants freedom and democracy and wants to be part of the Arab spring.
11.21am: Cameron is asked what should happen to Gaddafi - should he leave Libya?
I would like to see Colonel Gaddafi face justice for his crimes, Cameron says, but it is up to the Libyans to decide – and "first they have to find him".
We don't know where Gaddafi is. We don't know if he is in Libya.
11.19am: He suggests Nato's decision to intervene in Libya has been vindicated. It has avoided the slaughter by Gaddafi of his people. "It was right, because the Libyan people deserve to shape their own future, just like the people of Egypt and Tunisia are now doing."
Our forces showed great bravery and professionalism, Cameron says.
Today the Arab spring is a step further away from oppression and dictatorship and the Libyan people are a step closer to their future free from Gaddafi, Cameron says.
11.18am: We will soon be able to release the frozen assets that belong to the Libyan people, Cameron says. William Hague is returning to the UK to help with the process.
11.18am: We will establish a British diplomatic presence in Tripoli as soon as it is safe to do so, Cameron says.
11.16am: The transition must be a Libyan-led and Libyan-owned process, Cameron says. Clearly the immediate priority today is to establish security in Tripoli.
The British prime minister says he has spoken to the rebel leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil about "respecting human rights and avoiding reprisals".
11.15am: David Cameron is speaking now. He says the vast majority of Tripoli is under rebel control although fighting remains fierce.
Gaddafi must stop fighting without conditions ... As for his future that should be an issue for Chairman Jalil and the new Libyan authorities.
11.15am: Enduring America's Libya live blog posts this video of what it says is celebrations in Tripoli early this morning. Gunfire, cheering, car horns beeping, and chants of "Allahu akbar" can be heard throughout in the crowded night-time streets.
11.10am: Video has emerged purporting to show the moment on Sunday when rebels stormed the home of Gaddafi's daughter Aisha.
Gunfire can be heard throughout the clip. Towards the end rebels dressed in T-shirts and shorts are handed automatic weapons as they enter a walled compound.
11.10am: Rebels say they are near the presidential compound but Muammar Gaddafi's forces are resisting, Sky News is reporting. Sky's reporter in the west of the city showed graffiti painted by the rebels on the walls of streets as they swept through western Tripoli saying: "Never again" and "Thank God Libya is free". Libyan flags had also been painted on the wall – presumably the old royalist flag that many of the rebels have adopted. "The whole way in from Zawiya is a sea of rebel flags," the channel's reporter says.
10.55am: Here's the latest from Lizzy Davies on the situation in Tripoli.
10.48am: Is Libya heading for an Iraq-like crisis? Not if the lessons from the post-Saddam era can be learned, writes the Guardian's Middle expert Brian Whitaker:
There is also no reason to suppose that Libya will turn into a failed state. Under Gaddafi, it ranked 111 out of 171 in the Failed States Index – closer to Finland and Norway (the least failed states) than to Somalia or Afghanistan.
Regardless of the eccentricities of its leader, and despite the corruption and the secret police, Gaddafi's Libya also had most of the apparatus for government that would be found in a "normal" country. The need here is to heed the lessons of Iraq and not dismantle it at a stroke and then start again from scratch but to take control of it and reform where necessary.
Libya also has a couple of advantages over its revolutionary forerunners, Tunisia and Egypt, which could prove important in the immediate aftermath.
Middle East analyst Issandr El Amrani is worried that the apparent success in Libya will be used to justify more military interference in the region.
Personally, as happy as I am about last night's developments, I fear that the fall of Gaddafi is already being spun to sanctify the principle of humanitarian interventionism, which I am against, after its misuse in Iraq. The case might be made that the principle of Responsibility To Protect (R2P) will get a boost out of the Libya case, and perhaps the case can be made that no-fly zones have proven their effectiveness. Nato went further than that, though, and that troubles me — because that's not what the citizens of Nato countries were told would happen, and it's not what the UN sanctioned.
The usual blowhard neocon commentators are now using this not only to defend the idea of humanitarian interventionism, but to bash [Barack] Obama for not committing greater resources (and presumably more aggressive tactics) to Nato because it might have ended the civil war more quickly. That's impossible to know, though, and to me remains as dubious as the argument that not intervening at all would have spared us six months of civil war and a Libya that might be destabilised in the long-term.
10.40am: Ed Miliband (left), the leader of the opposition in Britain, has put out a statement saying that the situation in Libya is "fraught and fragile" but it is clear that Muammar Gaddafi's regime is "crumbling".
Miliband, the leader of the Labour party, said:
Anybody looking at the scenes from Tripoli will see a people who want to be freed from the repression which has marked Colonel Gaddafi's rule ... The international community has come together on Libya to show it can unite and stop the brutal murder of his own people that Colonel Gaddafi threatened. The challenge now is to ensure that a transition takes place from popular revolt against Colonel Gaddafi to stable government without him.
He said that transition had to be "led and enforced" by the Libyan people, informed by "the lessons of the past, including Iraq".
10.23am: The Libyan charge d'affaires to Britain claims we are witnessing a rebel victory in Tripoli, writes Lizzy Davies.
Mahmoud Nacua, the recently appointed diplomatic envoy to the UK, has just told me he is certain of imminent victory, and says that once it is secured, the rebel-led government will move from the east of the country to Tripoli.
"It will soon move from Benghazi to Tripoli to start a new era for Libya," he said. A new transitional government would be appointed, he added. "That will happen in a few days after Tripoli has been secured," he said.
Despite the recent symbolism and revolutionary cache of Benghazi, the stronghold of the rebels, Nacua said there was no question the capital of a post-Gaddafi Libya would not still be Tripoli.
"It is symbolical and historical," he said. "All the people in Libya insist it is the capital of the country ... because of its history and also because it was the last target [of the rebels]."
Asked if he could shed light on Gaddafi's whereabouts, he said: "We don't know exactly where he is but the fighters will look to find him. Maybe it will be hours or days - I don't know - but his era is over."
He denied reports that up to 20% of the capital was currently under pro-Gaddafi forces' control. "Our fighters control at least 95% of Tripoli. There are some small pockets of resistance [but] I think victory is going on. People are celebrating."
10.19am: Gaddafi's forces control only 10-15% of Tripoli, according to the Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini.
Reuters reports:
Frattini told Sky Italia television that "time has run out" for negotiations over a possible exile for Gaddafi and he must face trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
"Not more than 10-15% of Tripoli is in the hands of the regime," Frattini said, adding that the arrest of two of Gaddafi's sons was a decisive moment in the conflict.
The Guardian's Luke Harding said such "slide rule" calculations about the level of control of Gaddafi's forces were impossible to verify on the ground (see 8.17am).
10.06am: Foreign media, who have been corralled in the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli for the past six months, appeared to be trapped inside the compound due to heavy fighting in nearby streets, writes Harriet Sherwood (who had a stint in the notorious hotel earlier this year).
The hotel is close to Bab Al-Azizya, Gaddafi's sprawling compound in the city which has been bombed repeatedly by Nato war planes.
Journalists at the Rixos reported that most of the government officials and minders have left in the past 24 hours. "I noticed the translators we have been working with for months now had also left. So too the state television staff who have worked out of here since their headquarters were bombed by Nato," wrote BBC correspondent Matthew Price.
The media corps held a meeting to discuss tactics as rebels entered Tripoli. There have been fears among journalists for months that they could be held as human shields by Gaddafi loyalists in the face of a rebel onslaught on the capital.
9.58am: The rebels' advance on Tripoli last night is a morale boost for Syrian activists hoping that once Gaddafi goes Syrian president Bashar al-Assad will be next on the list, writes Nour Ali.
"The germs of Syria congratulate the rats of Libya," read many a Tweet, referring to the terms used by each of the countries leaders for those fomenting unrest against the autocrats' rule.
Others activists used the network to urge Assad to watch the news and realise he was next. The situation in Syria is less certain as the regime continues to crack down against almost exclusively unarmed protesters and without the appetite for military invention that helped push the Libyan rebels to victory.
But the impending end of Gaddafi's rule - who came to power just a year before the Assad dynasty in Syria - has certainly bolstered morale among protesters.
It is also likely to rattle the regime in Damascus despite Assad's assertions during a television interview last night that he is "not worried".
"It is a great boost to morale," Ahmad, an activist and protester from Latakia told the Guardian. "On the street pro-regime people said Gaddafi will stay even with military intervention, but now it shows that is not true. I think it will cause fear. And maybe that those who want to be on the winning side will start shifting."
Another protester, a 30-year-old man from Damascus, said he was "so happy" at the news and felt more determination to carry on. "I think there will be more international attention on Syria now," he said. "We are seeing freedom all over!"
Some diplomats have expressed fears that last weeks call by the US and UK for Assad to step aside in combination with the endgame in Libya will lead to calls for military intervention in Syria. So far that has been resolutely rejected by Syrian protesters as well as the international community.
Nour Ali is a pseudonym for a reporter based in Damascus
9.37am: "There is tremendous gratitude towards Nato," Luke Harding reports in his latest audio dispatch from Tripoli.
This district where I am is completely in opposition hands. I met one guy in an England T-shirt who was praising loudly David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy, saying "England good, England good. Thank you, thank you." It was almost like a Conservative party spin doctor's dream.
Speaking above the sound of gunfire, Luke said he had heard that Gaddafi's tanks had entered the area around Green Square. There is also sniper fire.
Locals say there are not huge pockets of resistance from the regime, but there are what they call fifth columnist losing off a couple of shots and then running away.
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9.23am: World leaders are calling on Gaddafi to relinquish power. AP has this round-up of some of the reaction:
• Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini said: "The only path Gaddafi must take is that of surrender."
• David Cameron, the British prime minister, cut short his holiday today to chair a meeting of the country's special security committee on Libya. His office said that it was clear "the end is near for Gaddafi," and called on him to "go now to avoid any further suffering for his own people."
• The Danish prime minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said: "The Libyan people's struggle for freedom has gone into the play-offs."
Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the "Gaddafi regime is clearly crumbling" (see below).
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9.14am: Turning briefly to Syria - the Assad regime's decision to allow a UN mission to visit the country appears to be backfiring.
Nour Ali (a pseudonym for a reporter based in Damascus) has this:
Activists told the Guardian at the weekend that a clean-up operation was starting in preparation after the mission from the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs was promised full access to the country.
However, the efforts don't appear to be concealing the extent of the crackdown or levels of antipathy towards the regime.
A western diplomat with reliable sources on the ground in Syria told the Guardian the mission was "turning into an anti-government roadshow with the whole thing backfiring on the Syrians who were hoping to make a PR stunt out of it".
The diplomat said the delegation's visits to two towns close to Damascus, Moadimiyeh and Douma, yesterday, were met by protesters chanting against president Bashar al-Assad.
People were reaching out to give their names and tell their stories and some showed the mission signs of torture from periods of detention, the diplomat said.
"The whitewash has become a fiasco," the diplomat said. The delegation is due to visit Homs and Banias today and Latakia tomorrow.
On Sunday a defiant president Bashar al-Assad warned against outside interference in Syria and shrugged off international criticism in a live interview with state television.
9.06am: "Libyans deserve a moment of exultation," writes the Middle East analyst Juan Cole.
In a blogpost Cole, a supporter of the Nato campaign, argues that the way the end of the conflict is playing out is best that could have been hoped for.
The secret of the uprising's final days of success lay in a popular revolt in the working-class districts of the capital, which did most of the hard work of throwing off the rule of secret police and military cliques. It succeeded so well that when revolutionary brigades entered the city from the west, many encountered little or no resistance, and they walked right into the center of the capital ...
The end game, wherein the people of Tripoli overthrew the Qaddafis and joined the opposition Transitional National Council, is the best case scenario that I had suggested was the most likely denouement for the revolution.
8.51am: The phrases "endgame" and "Gaddafi on the brink" compete for prominence on the front pages of today's newspapers in the UK. The New Statesman has a gallery of the coverage.
8.17am: "It ain't over yet", Luke Harding reports from Tripoli after coming under fire while entering the city.
Tripoli hasn't fallen ... we came under fire about five or ten minutes ago ... there are clearly some people who are extremely unhappy about the rebels. They are either trying to defend their property, as they see it, or just stop the advance. There are pockets of resistance all over the place - this fight is not over.
The other big question is where is Gaddafi? There have been rumours that he is in Algeria, that he is near the Algerian border, that other diplomatic sources saying he is still hold up in the compound. We simply don't know where he is.
It is just impossible at this early point to say how things will play out today. It maybe that the resistance kind of crumbles and it is all over fairly quickly or it maybe that we are in for a few days of street-to-street fighting. We will just have to see, but it ain't over yet.
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8.05am: Fighting has broken out near the Rixos hotel in the Tripoli, a doctor told Sky News.
Is is likely to be day of wild rumour and conflicting reports, not least about the whereabouts of Muammar Gaddafi. Diplomats told AFP that the Libyan leader is still in his residence in Tripoli. There have also been reports that he has fled. All this is impossible to verify.
7.31am: Welcome to Middle East Live as momentous events unfold in the Libyan capital Tripoli.
Here's a summary of the main developments overnight. You can read more details on Sunday's extended live blog:
• There are reports of heavy clashes around Muammar Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli. His forces are believed to be in control of up to 20% of the capital. Gaddafi's whereabouts are unknown.
• The International Criminal Court said it had confirmation that Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam, had been arrested. Gaddafi's eldest son Mohammed is also believed to be under house arrest.
• The rebels' spokesman promised they would guarantee Gaddafi's safety and said they wanted to see him stand trial in Libya and nowhere else.
• Barack Obama has put out a statement on the situation in Libya in which he says Gaddafi must "acknowledge the reality that he no longer controls Libya. He needs to relinquish power once and for all".
• Gaddafi issued a desperate call to Libyan tribes to come to the capital to defend it, while government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim proposed a ceasefire.
on The Guardian World News: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2011/aug/22/libya-middle-east-unrest-live
