Rebels capture Gaddafi's sons in Tripoli

Libyans await word that city has fallen

Posted Aug 21, 2011

Global Post

With a stunning pace Libyan rebels entered Tripoli from the west Sunday and advanced toward the center of the city, meeting almost no resistance along the way, various news agencies reported.

Gaddafi heir apparent Saif Al Islam, was reportedly captured in Tripoli. A spokesman for the National Transitional Council told a Sky News reporter that sons Saif Al-Islam, Saadi and Mohammed Gaddafi have been captured. Saif is wanted by the International Criminal Court.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi released a series of garbled audio messages to rile his followers to fight and pleading with them to not allow Tripoli to fall. Most speculate Gaddafi is no longer in Tripoli. Rebel leadership in Benghazi told Al Arabiya that his security guards have surrendered, Reuters reports.

Earlier Sunday, hundreds of euphoric Libyan rebels overran a major military base and home to the Khamis brigade assigned to defend the capital. They carted away truckloads of weapons and raced toward Tripoli with almost no resistance, Al Jazeera reported.

The rebels made these giant leaps forward after six months of largely deadlocked civil war. Their advances were packed into just a few dramatic days once the rebels took the western town of Zawiya.

By nightfall Sunday, rebels advanced more than 20 miles to Gaddafi's last major bastion of support, entering the city's Green Square, where scattered fighting was reported.

Along the way into Tripoli, Rebels freed several hundred prisoners from a political prisons around Tripoli.

To make these gains, the rebels executed a higher level of organization than previously expected, with some groups moving by boat from Misrata to attack Tripoli on Saturday.

Libyans waited to hear the announcement that Tripoli had fallen Sunday.

This article originally appeared on GlobalPost.