Libyan rebels have launched a final assault on Tripoli to oust Muammar Gaddafi, moving into the centre of the city and as the International Criminal Court confirmed the capture of the strongman's son Seif al-Islam.
However, senior rebel figure Mahmud Jibril said there were still pockets of resistance in and around Tripoli, Libya's capital, and warned his forces to be cautious.
"The fight is not over yet," he said on rebel television Al-Ahrar. "God willing, in few hours our victory will be complete."
Thousands of residents poured onto the streets to welcome the rebels, congregating at the site which they renamed Martyrs Square near the water front in the centre of Tripoli.
Sky News showed scenes of jubilant crowds gathered there, many waving the red, black and green flag of anti-regime forces, dancing in joy and shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest). Some fired rifles into the air.
As many of the men flashed V-for-victory signs and shouted "tell Muammar (Gaddafi) and his sons that Libya has men," a Sky correspondent said people were lighting fires with posters of the Libyan strongman and the solid green flag of the regime that they had torn down.
Similar scenes of jubilation were witnessed in Benghazi, the rebels' bastion in the east, where delirious residents danced and proclaimed the end of the regime of the "tyrant" Gaddafi.
US President Barack Obama said in a
statement that the "surest way for the bloodshed to end is simple: [Muammar Gaddafi] and his regime need to recognise that their rule has come to an end".
Defiant ... Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Photo: Reuters
"Meanwhile, the United States has recognised the Transitional National Council as the legitimate governing authority in Libya. ... The future of Libya is now in the hands of the Libyan people."
Where is Colonel Gaddafi?
While Gaddafi spoke to the nation three times on Sunday local time in audio recordings, his whereabouts were unknown.
Colonel Gaddafi vowed not to surrender, even as NATO said his regime was crumbling and Britain predicted "the end was near" for the 69-year-old leader, who has kept a tight grip on power in his oil-rich North African nation for almost 42 years.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi ... Colonel Gaddafi's son has been captured.
Photo: Reuters
As the rebels bayed for blood and boasted they would take full control of Tripoli during the night, Colonel Gaddafi urged the people of Tripoli to "purge the capital" in his third message.
'Gunfire is inside my house': Gaddafi's eldest son
His eldest son, Mohammad, told al-Jazeera television he was being detained by rebels and being kept under house arrest in Tripoli.
"Gunmen surrounded my house and I am still at home and they are outside," he said on the phone to al-Jazeera.
"They said they will guarantee my safety. They are besieging my house," he said.
On the attack ... a Libyan rebel raids a captured military base.
Photo: AFP
He added, "yes, the gunfire is inside my house" before the phone line was cut off.
Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told a press conference that 1300 people had been killed in the rebel assault on the capital, describing the fighting as a "real tragedy".
He insisted that Libya's regime "is still strong and thousands of volunteers and soldiers are ready to fight".
Libyan rebels have reached the highly symbolic Green Square in the centre of Tripoli, Sky News reported early today, showing scenes of jubilant crowds gathered there.
Young men, many waving the red, black and green flag of anti-regime forces, were shouting and dancing in obvious joy, shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) and some firing rifles into the air.
Rebel leaders had earlier reported that an advance party of fighters had arrived by sea in the capital and joined sleeper cells of rebels to launch the final assault, codenamed "Mermaid".
Another rebel force advanced on the capital from the west, moving in a convoy of about 100 vehicles as onlookers fired celebratory gunfire into the air, an AFP correspondent said.
By Sunday afternoon they had overrun the eastern suburb of Tajura and boasted that they would seize control of the capital during the night.
A separate rebel party took over an army barracks at a western entrance to Tripoli, raiding the stores of missiles and other ammunition, AFP correspondents at the scene said.
They also released dozens of prisoners held in Maya, 25 kilometres west of Tripoli, they said.
"We will enter Tripoli in a few hours. Between now and tomorrow we expect it to fall in our hands," said rebel commander Abdelhakim Belhaj.
A rebel spokesman said the insurgents were also tightening the noose around loyalist forces in the far west of Libya, near the Tunisian border.
A fierce gun battle also broke out near the Hotel Rixos, used by the foreign media in the centre of Tripoli, an AFP correspondent said.
Gunmen loyal to Colonel Gaddafi opened fire armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles from the Hotel Rixos towards the east, although their target was not visible.
Gaddafi's son Seif al-Islam captured
The capture of another of Colonel Gaddafi's sons, Seif al-Islam, by rebel forces has now been confirmed by the International Criminal Court, which had issued a warrant for his arrest for crimes against humanity.
"I have received confidential information stating he has been arrested," ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said.
Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman of the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) earlier told al-Jazeera television from Benghazi in eastern Libya he had "information that Seif al-Islam has been captured".
"He is being kept in a secure place under close guard until he is handed over to the judiciary," Abdel Jalil said, without saying when or where Colonel Gaddafi's son had been captured.
Before the revolt which erupted in February, Seif al-Islam was increasingly seen as the successor to his father.
He long served as the face of the regime in the West as he appeared in suit and tie and spoke fluent English.
Gaddafi vows to fight
Colonel Gaddafi has refused to relinquish power. He vowed not to surrender and boasted he would "emerge victorious" in the battle for Tripoli.
"We will not, we will not abandon Tripoli to the occupants and their agents. I am with you in this battle," he said in an audio message broadcast on television.
"We do not surrender and, by God's grace, we will emerge victorious."
He called on his supporters to "march on Tajura in tens of thousands to purge the officials of the colonisers", in a reference to the NATO-backed rebels.
He had earlier aired a message urging supporters to "march by the millions" to liberate cities held by "traitors and rats".
And in a third audio message broadcast on state television late on Sunday night local time, he said the people should "go out now to purge the capital", adding that there was "no place for the agents of colonialism in Tripoli and Libya".
The rebels' initial assault was launched soon after four strong blasts were heard in the capital about 4am on Sunday (midnight AEST), and while NATO warplanes flew overhead, an AFP journalist said.
Gunfire crackled intermittently through the morning and more blasts were heard.
The targets were not immediately identifiable but witnesses reported clashes in several districts between insurgents and Gaddafi supporters, especially the eastern suburbs of Soug Jomaa, Arada and Tajura.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said early on Monday that Colonel Gaddafi's 42-year rule in Libya was "clearly crumbling".
"The sooner Gaddafi realises that he cannot win the battle against his own people, the better - so that the Libyan people can be spared further bloodshed and suffering," he said in a statement.
Rebels bay for dictator's blood
Libya's former prime minister Abdessalam Jalloud, who defected, said he believed it was too late for Colonel Gaddafi, his former comrade, to strike a deal to leave power and he would most likely be killed.
"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," said Mr Jalloud, a former regime stalwart who helped Colonel Gaddafi seize power in a 1969 coup.
"I think it would be difficult for Gaddafi to give himself up. And he is not like Hitler who had the courage to kill himself ... I don't think the evolution of the situation in Tripoli will allow him to survive," he told Italian news programme TG3.
In Dubai, rebel envoy Aref Ali Nayad said the NTC had urged NATO to join the final battle with Apache assault helicopters.
Striking another blow to Colonel Gaddafi's regime, Tunisia, Libya's neighbour to the west, on Sunday decided to recognise the NTC as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people, the news agency TAP reported.
And a ship chartered by the International Organisation for Migration was to leave for Tripoli from Benghazi during the night to evacuate about 300 foreigners, an official for the group said.
AFP with Reuters
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