Battle for Tripoli

Fighting raged in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, on Thursday as rebels kept up their hunt for fugitive leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Rebels said they were in control of the vast majority of the city, claiming that the taking of Gadhafi's compound, Bab al-Aziziya, represented an effective victory in their six-month battle for control of the country.

"Gadhafi's regime is 95 percent finished, 95 percent of Libya is under rebel control," Colonel Abdallah Abu Afra, a spokesman for the military committee of the rebel National Transitional Council, told broadcaster Al-Jazeera.

"He who governs Libya is he who controls Bab al-Aziziya and that is the reality of the matter. For us, Gadhafi is over," he said.

On Wednesday afternoon Libyan rebels offered a reward of 1.2 million euros ($1.7 million) to anyone who killed or captured Gadhafi - with the promise of amnesty for anyone to do so from within Gadhafi's inner circle.

Meanwhile, in an audio message on Syrian television, Gadhafi renewed his calls for loyalist Tripoli residents to fight. He claimed he had walked through Tripoli and was confident that the city would be defended.

"I walked incognito, without anyone seeing me, and I saw youths ready to defend their city," said Gadhafi, without specifying when he had taken to the streets.

Paris pledges to keep up pressure

As French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with the head of Libya's Transitional National Council, Mahmud Jibril, on Wednesday the two men said NATO might be required to continue with its intervention in Libya. Sarkozy said France would adhere to the UN resolution allowing the Western military alliance to intervene where it would save civilian lives.

"We're prepared to continue the operations within the framework of UN Resolution 1973 for as long as we believe the Libyan people need that assistance," said Sarkozy.

Jibril said assaults by pro-Gadhafi forces continued against a number of towns in the south of the country, as well as districts of Tripoli.

While loyalist forces bombarded Bab al-Aziziya, attention turned to the Rixos hotel to the south of the city center, which appeared to be slipping from the control of Gadhafi's men.

Foreign journalists freed

Foreign journalists being held inside the hotel - mostly American and British - reported that they had been freed by late afternoon Wednesday. The journalists had been isolated since the recent offensive began, with guards in the hotel and snipers active on surrounding streets. Media rights organization Reporters without Borders had described the situation as "very worrying."

Rebel commanders claimed snipers had taken up position at various unknown points around the city center. "There are dozens of them but we don't know where they are," said the chief of a rebel group, Nuri Mohammed.

Intense clashes continued Wednesday around the Abu Salim neighborhood, thought to be one of the last remaining regime strongholds in Tripoli.

Pre-Gadhafi era Libyan flags - the rebel symbol - went up at numerous Libyan embassies around the world as international acceptance of the National Transitional Council appeared to be increasing.

Outside Libya, rebels advancing towards Sirte - Gadhafi's hometown - said they had met with stiff resistance from loyalists in the town of Bin Jawad on Wednesday.

Author: Richard Connor (AFP, dpa, Reuters)
Editor: Martin Kuebler