Only a matter of time before Gaddafi either pops up in a neighboring Arab country or is hung from a street lamp in downtown Tripoli.
(CBS/AP) — Euphoric Libyan rebels raced into the capital Tripoli on Sunday, meeting little resistance on their way into the city’s center. The opposition’s leaders said Muammar Qaddafi’s son and one-time heir apparent, Seif al-Islam, has been arrested, as well as his other son, Mohammed Qaddafi.
A rebel leader told Al Jazeera that Qaddafi has refused to surrender, and that his guards shot at rebels as they were closing in, killing one of them. Qaddafi’s whereabouts are currently unknown.
In a statement, the NATO secretary general said the dictator’s regime was “clearly crumbling. The sooner Qaddafi realizes that he cannot win the battle against his own people, the better — so that the Libyan people can be spared further bloodshed and suffering.”
Sky News correspondent Alex Crawford reports that along the way of the speedy rebel advance, there was no substantial resistance from the Qaddafi troops. All the evidence suggested the government’s soldiers had ditched their uniforms and had simply scarpered.
The rebels advance swept quickly into Green Square, once the symbolic center of Qaddafi’s revolution. The regime has held pro-Qaddafi rallies there nearly every night since the revolt began in February, and the historic Red Fort that overlooks the square is a favorite scenic spot for the Libyan leader to deliver speeches to his loyalists. The Green Square has been renamed “Martyrs Square” by many celebrating there.
In a telephone interview with CBS News, Tripoli resident Hana Mohammed, a translator for a foreign embassy in Tripoli, said she had just came back from Green Square, where she said residents were celebrating wildly.