GADDIFI TOPPLED!!!!!TRIPOLI CELEBRATING!!!!!!!!

"What goes up must come down"
Al Jazeera 23 Aug 2011

As James Bays reports from Tripoli, just next to opposition fighters who had reportedly been inside Bab al-Aziziya, Muammar Gaddafi's main compound, the men in the background become very excited.

In a show of excitement, opposition forces shoot many rounds of bullets into the air, but as James Bays says, "what goes up must come down".

The BBC reports:

"Shooting an automatic weapon into the sky to signal an occasion one welcomes is a popular practice in much of the world, as the footage of Libyan anti-Gaddafi forces seizing the main square of the capital city has demonstrated.

But it is a potentially fatal activity, which regularly results in the deaths of bystanders.

Intent on reaching Tripoli, hundreds of opposition fighters have left Misurata in a column of vehicles.

In Zlitan, sporadic artillery fire from forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi held the rebels back, but not for long. About 50km away, fighters in the city rose at the same time as seismic events in Tripoli.

Along the road, other towns and villages also joined the list of places rising up against Gaddafi's forces.

But poor communication meant that, until now, no one in the surrounding areas knew the regime forces had been overrun.

Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons reports from Qasa al Khiar.

Yes, Alex Crawford said the reason she wears a steel helmet at all times is not fear of Gaddafi, but fear of falling celebratory bullets..

She is talking to one of the rebels in the compound now; he appears to be wearing one of Gaddafi's braided, peaked hats...

Libyan rebels celebrate in central Tripoli

Al Jazeera English on 21 Aug 2011

Thousands of opposition fighters are streaming into the capital Tripoli, they have taken over the city's Green Square and vowed to rename it Martyrs' square.

The square has been the scene of huge pro-Gaddafi protests, so the scenes of people celebrating are particularly symbolic.

The rebels say one of Muammar Gaddafi's sons, Saif Al Islam, has been captured, and another, Mohammed, is under arrest.

Al Jazeera's Sonia Gallego reports.

From:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14630702

Rebels overrun Gaddafi compound

Here's the guy who found Gaddafi's hat:




He says he is going to give it to his dad, as he suffered a lot under the regime.

ETA, it has been identified as a Famous Hat - indeed, the 40th Anniversary Hat:



Oh, and the rebels have liberated the Gaddafi Golf Buggy, too, it seems.

Report going across the bottom of the screen says Gadafi has reported he is safe and well?

Still Whereabouts unknown here, Tony?

Where is Muammar Gaddafi?
Al Jazeera English 22 Aug 2011

Speculation is rife about the whereabouts of Muammar Gaddafi

The US believes he is still in Libya, according to the Pentagon.

Some suggest he could be in neighbouring Algeria, or in remote southern Libya.

He may also be talking to regional allies in Africa.

Al Jazeera's Nazanin Sadri reports.

Al Jazeera Live Blog:

34 min 48 sec ago

Opposition fighters in eastern Libya took control of the oil port of Ras Lanuf on Tuesday as soldiers loyal to Muammar Gaddafi retreated toward the leader's home town of Sirte, an opposition spokesperson said.

Rebels appeared to be in the final phases of a six-month uprising aimed at ending Gaddafi's 42-year rule, having stormed his compound in Tripoli earlier on Tuesday, though Gaddafi's whereabouts remained a mystery.

"We have taken Ras Lanuf. They just ran until the Red Valley," opposition spokesperson Mohammad Zawawi said, adding the Red Valley was in the direction of Sirte.

Zawawi said there was no damage to the oil facilities in Ras Lanuf and the only damage at Brega, taken by the rebels on Monday, was an oil storage tank that was on fire.

Ras Lanuf is home to one of the OPEC-member nation's six main oil export terminals and handled about 195,000 barrels per day before the war. Marsa El Brega exported about 51,000 bpd before the fighting began in February.

Zawawi said NATO aircraft were attacking the Gaddafi soldiers in the Red Valley about 50 km (30 miles) west of Ras Lanuf. It was not clear if the soldiers were headed for Sirte, believed still to be a stronghold of the long-time leader.

Libyan government forces fired three Scud-type missiles on Monday from the area of Sirte towards the rebel-held coastal city of Misrata in central Libya, NATO said on Monday.

The western alliance said initial reports showed the rockets landed most likely at sea or on the shore, and NATO was not aware of any casualties or damage.

40 min 48 sec ago

Al Jazeera's James Bays speaks with two supporters of opposition fighters, just outside Muammar Gaddafi's main compound in Libya's capital city, Tripoli.



One of the men called Tuesday: "A day of freedom... A day of opportunity... A day to look forward to a great future."

1 hour 22 min ago

Libya's stock of chemical weapons, including over 10 tons of mustard gas, are under strict US surveillance, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

"We have been and continue to monitor chemical weapons sites," spokesperson Colonel David Lapan said.

Muammar Gaddafi's regime joined the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in 2004 after renouncing weapons of mass destruction in December 2003, but still had to eliminate 11.25 tons of mustard gas when the uprising to remove him from power began in February.

All 3,563 munitions - such as bombs, shells and missiles - that could serve as a carrier to distribute mustard gas have, however, been destroyed, according to the OPCW.

Mustard gas depots are located at Rabta, about 100km (60 miles) south of Tripoli and at the Ruwagha site in Al-Jufra, south of Sirte.

Under rules of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Libya signed onto, such plants must remain closed or destroyed.

Mustard gas, also known as Yperite or sulfur mustards, can form large blisters or chemical burns on exposed skin and eyes, as well as cause bleeding and blistering within the respiratory system.

Asked about the heavy fighting now gripping Tripoli as rebels overran Kadhafi's fortified Bab al-Azizya headquarters in a symbolic end to the strongman's 42-year iron-fisted rule, Lapan cautioned the situation remained "very fluid."

"We believe the opposition forces control a large part of the country.

Libya, and Tripoli in particular, are still very dangerous places," the spokesperson said.

"Until the Gaddafi regime ceases its attacks, it's not over."

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16055646


Rebels Swipe Gaddafi's Hat And Golf Cart
0Comments
9:27pm UK, Tuesday August 23, 2011
Libyan rebels are celebrating after finally breaching the walls of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's compound - seizing his personal possessions, including a hat and golf buggy.
Sky's Alex Crawford, inside the perimeter wall, spoke to rebel fighters as many roared with delight and fired their guns into the air.
Fighters swept through Bab al Aziziyah's buildings after days of street battles in the Libyan capital.
Amid the elation, one rebel said: "It's just unbelievable. All the people that have sacrificed for us, for this moment. We're in front of his compound and where is he? He's underground, he can't do anything. Where is he?"
As more rebels stormed into the compound, posters were ripped down and an iconic statue of a hand holding a US Apache plane was attacked.
Groups of rebels climbed onto the buildings' roofs and fired their guns and waved their flags.

One man found Col Gaddafi's gold-trimmed hat in his bedroom inside the compound and was wearing it as he told Crawford he planned to give it to his father.
He said: "He has suffered a lot from Gaddafi. I am proud of this moment which the Libyans have waited for 42 years for."
Others managed to find the leader's infamous golf buggy, in which he made a bizarre appearance earlier this year.
They also set fire to Col Gaddafi's tent where, over the decades, he had hosted political leaders from around the world.



Col Gaddafi in the hat in September 2009
Crawford said: "The place is filled with opposition fighters and soldiers... it has been well and truly taken over by them.
"There are extraordinary scenes of people on the rooftop and others praying on the ground of the compound.
"This is the middle of the holy month of Ramadan, so it is an extra special moment."
The momentous scenes began at nightfall on Sunday when anti-government fighters surged along the road from Zawiyah to Tripoli by car and by foot.
They sang songs and anti-Gaddafi chants as they prepared to take control of the capital.

The convoy made a beeline for Green Square where thousands shouted, sang, danced and kissed the ground.
"It's over for Gaddafi," they shouted. "We are free, we are free."
On Monday, despite the jubilation of the rebels, intense fighting took place between rebels and Gaddafi loyalists.
The violence mainly took place between the dictator's compound and the Rixos hotel where journalists are based.
As Col Gaddafi's whereabouts remained unknown on Tuesday, the rebels surrounded the complex before they finally claimed victory within its huge walls.
It is still not known where Col Gaddafi is but there has been no sign of him within Bab al Aziziyah.

Good morning!

Al Jazeera:

Libyan rebels seize Gaddafi compound
Gaddafi reportedly vows "martyrdom or victory" after the fall of his fortified Bab al-Azizya compound in Tripoli.
Last Modified: 24 Aug 2011 03:42

Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr reports from Gaddafi's fallen compound in Tripoli
Link as this is not yet on you tube: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/08/20118234144136279.html

Libyan rebels have overrun the fortified compound of Muammar Gaddafi in Bab al-Azizya in the capital, Tripoli, following intense fighting with forces loyal to the Libyan leader.

The rebels "broke through the gates of Bab al-Azizya [and] some opposition fighters managed to enter the government's stronghold in the Libyan capital," Al Jazeera's correspondent Zeina Khodr said, reporting from the compound on Tuesday.

As celebratory gunfire rang out, there were reports that the compound armoury was being looted.

A rebel supporter was seen kicking around a broken sculpture of Gaddafi.

A local Tripoli radio station reported Gaddafi as saying that his withdrawal from his headquarters was a "tactical move after the compound was levelled by 64 NATO air strikes".

What was put out by the radio station was also reported by Al-Orouba TV broadcasting in conjunction with Al-Rai TV.

The report said Gaddafi vowed "martyrdom" or victory in his fight against NATO.

Moussa Ibrahim, a spokesman for Gaddafi, later said the Libyan leader was ready to resist rebels for months, or even years, and vowed to turn Libya into "volcanoes, lava and fire".

Speaking by telephone to Al-Orouba and al-Rai, Ibrahim said that Gaddafi's forces had captured four "high ranking" Qataris and one United Arab Emirates national, and said that rebel leaders would not enjoy peace if they moved to Tripoli from the eastern city of Benghazi.

'Hundreds killed'

Meanwhile, the head of the rebel council said that 400 people were killed and 2,000 wounded in three days of fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Gaddafi in the Libyan capital.

Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council, told France 24 television that some 600 pro-Gaddafi fighters had been captured but the battle would not be over until the Libyan leader himself was a prisoner.

Fighting continued across the capital with the sound of gunfire and occasional explosions ringing out.

Apart from Bab al-Azizya, the rebels also seized control of the Abu Salim neighbourhood of Tripoli late on Tuesday, a senior spokesman said, referring to one of Gaddafi's main bastions of support in the Libyan capital.

The Libyan leader's whereabouts are still unknown, but according to the head of the World Chess Federation, Gaddafi is "alive and healthy, and has no plans to leave Libya".

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said he spoke to Gaddafi by telephone on Tuesday who said to him, "do not believe the lying reports by Western television companies".

But there is speculation he could be granted asylum in Zimbabwe should he choose to leave Libya as he has cordial relations with the Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

Jonathan Kadzura, a poltical analyst from Zimbabwe, dismisses the idea of Gaddafi fleeing to Zimbabwe.

"There is no way anybody in their sober minds would be entertaining anything like that because he is not going to leave Libya," said Kadzura to Al Jazeera.

Political significance

Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior political analyst, said that the events of Tuesday were "significant".


Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr reports from Tripoli

"In a way the Libyan people broke the chains that have held them down for four decades ... today there is a future without Gaddafi, a future they can make for themselves.

"After what we have seen today, after what Mahmoud Jibril (a leader of the rebel National Transitional Council) said, and the international recognition of NTC as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people, it means that Gaddafi is now just a sought after criminal. The idea of Gaddafi as 'the Libyan leader', is over.

Meanwhile, 30 journalists remained holed up in Tripoli's Rixos hotel on Tuesday. Journalists from the BBC, CNN and other international news organisations were reported to be stuck inside the hotel with no electricity and described the hotel as a "prison".

Fighting on other fronts

Gaddafi forces fired several Scud missiles from the regime's bastion of Sirte at rebel-held Misrata further up the coast late on Tuesday, a rebel source said.

"Scuds launched from Sirte towards Misrata, loud explosions heard," the media centre of the Misrata military council said in a statement.

There were also reports of Gaddafi's fighters attacking the town of Ajelat, west of Tripoli, with missiles and tanks.

Rebels in eastern Libya, in the meantime, advanced towards the oil terminal of Ras Lanuf after taking the coastal town of Ageila from Gaddafi forces.

.................................................................
Jackie Rowlands reports from Benghazi:

Daily Telegraph: link for video: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/libya-video/8719475/

Gaddafi forces melt away but regime vows 'years of resistance'

Alastair Good 09.30am BST 24 August2011

As the Gaddafi's spokesman blinkeredly maintained the regime was in a "very strong" position, opposition fighters report Tripoli has been abandoned.

Speaking on a Syrian television channel via phone link, spokesman Moussa Ibrahim denied that the rebels had won control of the capital. “Despite the presence of Nato gangs in some areas of Tripoli, our military, operational and civilian position is very strong and we are capable of continuing fighting not just for days or weeks, but for months or years," he said. "We were expecting a conspiracy on this scale and have prepared all the plans to turn Libya into a battlefield for resistance until victory."

Mr Ibrahim claimed that the regime controlled eighty percent of the capital, denying television reports which showed rebels in control of most of the city, including the former Gaddafi compound of Bab al-Aziziyah in the centre.

The National Transitional Council's (NTC) Tripoli representative said that Gaddafi's forces had abandoned the city when they realised the strength of the opposition.

“I think all the pro-Gaddafi people, I think they left by themselves. You know, in our experience the day before yesterday most of them just left. They left their cars, they left their weapons, and they left even their clothes, their military clothes and changed and then went to the streets,” said Al Amin Belhaj.

The NTC has been working on a plan for transition for many months but the speed of Gaddafi's downfall has left them scrambling to fill the power vaccum.

Al Jazeera English: 24 Aug 2011

Libyans celebrate their gains, despite remaining pockets of resistance in the capital and elsewhere.

Al Jazeera's Sue Turton, reporting from inside the Bab al-Aziziya compound, says that although Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's stronghold has fallen "fighting is far from over on in Tripoli".

"It is not yet apparent that the rebels have control of this city."

Thanks, LL - I am trying to catch up while there is a semi-lull. Looks like the Rixos is going to be the next centre of military action, as 30+ journos are trapped there by Gaddafi followers.

I would just like to point out that, with the views on here to date, plus the 9,000+ views on JATYK, the 10,000 views goal has probably been passed. I award myself a pat on the back, and also thank all those who helped with this! LL

Sky News:

What will the unravelling of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-year rule expose? Bunkers, tunnels, espionage and probably more.



The Rixos Hotel in Tripoli has been home for a steady flow of international journalists since the Libyan conflict began.

Over the months it has become almost as infamous as Saigon’s Caravelle, Sarajevo’s Holiday Inn and Baghdad’s Al Rashed.

Until two days ago, the only way to cover the Libyan conflict from Tripoli was to apply for a visa from Col Gaddafi’s government, hope it is granted and then succumb to a virtual house arrest at the Rixos.

Without the visa, it was impossible to get to Tripoli. With the visa, you’ll get there, but be unable to report anything without being monitored and ‘guided’ by government minders.

Most international news organisations took the decision that it was worth having a presence in Tripoli but to supplement it with another presence in the rebel held territories.

I spent five weeks in the Rixos. It was hard work. We were only allowed out with minders. Some of them were very friendly, but all monitored everything we did.

We could only go where they wanted to take us. We repeatedly asked to be taken to places that interested us. Answer: no.

At times it was intimidating. Many of the minders were genuine and passionate in their support for the Colonel. They never saw us as impartial. They were convinced we were spies.

We were convinced of a number of things too. We knew our emails and phones were being tapped, but we couldn’t prove it.

And we believed there was a series of bunkers under or near the hotel – a series of oddly placed air vents in the grounds and plenty of raised grass was enough to get the more imaginative minds going.

There is even a suggestion that a tunnel leads from the hotel north-east for a kilometre, popping up inside Col Gaddafi’s compound.

Well we now know – our emails were monitored. The three dozen journalists now stuck in the Rixos (the minders have fled) have discovered our emails printed out and labelled in handwriting.

The tunnels? We will find out I guess – but it will be fascinating to know how the Colonel managed to get to the Rixos (and away again) back in May without any of us knowing. We were oblivious and having dinner 30 yards from him.

The pressing question is where is he now? If he is still in Tripoli – and there’s no reason to suggest that he has left – then he is almost certainly in one of the many bunkers which are believed to lie beneath his sprawling compound.

Nato has spent months bombing the compound. Sources there have told me repeatedly that they know the leader has bunkers underneath the compound.

The bunkers were built by western companies (when the Colonel was on better terms with us) and it’s thought Nato has access to at least some of the blueprints for those bunkers.

Soon we may see the bunkers and the rest of it for ourselves.

Do have a green stripe to mark this, LL! It is you who have done the work, my input has been, WHOO HOO, look at that, they've taken Green Square!

More important, you have managed to make sense of what has been happening.

Who would have thought this would come to pass, when we started following this all those months ago, when Gaddafi was ordering his tanks to massacre the citizens of Benghazi?

It isn't over yet, of course, but it is a sure sign that a despotic lunatic has been toppled when people are stealing his golf buggy and wearing his hats.

I'd rather have his tent, personally. But there you go, that's just me. Some of those rugs are priceless.

Ah. There's a problem with the tent....remember all the smoke that was billowing about? That was the tent.

bb1 wrote:Ah. There's a problem with the tent....remember all the smoke that was billowing about? That was the tent.

1 hour 24 sec ago

Al Jazeera's Sue Turton, reporting live from the Libyan capital, Tripoli, said there has been "phrenetic activity" inside Muammar Gaddafi's compound in Bab al-Aziziya.

"What we are hearing is that in the school in the compound ... that there have been snipers, we think, in those trees.

"That is what the rebel soldiers are telling us and they have sent as much artillery in there as they possibly can ... to try and take those snipers out," our correspondent said.

Watch Turton's live report from inside the centre of Gaddafi's compound:

bb1 wrote:Ah. There's a problem with the tent....remember all the smoke that was billowing about? That was the tent.

I know. Such a waste. I would have gone down a bomb on The Vendee with that one.

PS. I hope they removed the rugs first.

I find the snipers reprehensible, LL. They can see who they are targetting, and have been shooting children, hospital staff, anyone...

That is murder in my book; these people are not the casualties of things going tragically wrong in the fog of war; they have been deliberately shot.