Libyan rebels battle Gaddafi in Tripoli street battles

Street to street gun battles raged in Tripoli between rebels and Gaddafi loyalists today. The regime, despite teetering, warned taking the capital would lead to much bloodshed.

But this afternoon Libyan rebels captured the military base of the feared Khamis Brigade, which defends Muammar Gaddafi's stronghold of Tripoli, the AP reported. "After a brief gun battle, Gaddafi's forces fled the base.

Inside, hundreds of rebels cheered wildly and danced, raising the rebel flag on the front gate of a large wall enclosing the compound. They seized large stores of weapons, driving away with truckloads of whatever arms they could get their hands on.

On Sunday, more heavy machine gun fire and explosions rang out across the capital. Residents reported clashes in neighborhoods all over Tripoli as well as the city's Mitiga military airport.

The regime was still sticking to the familiar rhetoric today. "Thousands of soldiers are ready to defend Tripoli," Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said in today's press conference. "Tripoli is well protected."

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said he will stay in Tripoli "until the end" and called on his supporters around the country to help liberate the capital from a rebel offensive.

Today there are reports that 376 people were killed on both sides in Tripoli fighting.

The rebels answer to Tripoli so far has been to ovewhelm regime forces from outside and from "sleeper cells" within the city of 2 million. "We will strangle Gaddafi's troops tonight," Mustafa Abdel Jalil, head of the opposition's National Transitional Council told Al Arabiya television, Bloomberg reported.

NATO aircraft attacked Gaddafi's headquarters in Bab Al Aziza, and hit several targets yesterday including a military storage facility, a radar installation and armed vehicles, NATO reported.

US State Department spokeswoman Beth Gosselin said the U.S. has seen press reports that Gaddafi and two of his sons have fled the country, "but we don't have any confirmation."

Some analysts think Tripoli would offer the stiffest resistence yet, and it still could get worse. "I'm assuming the Tripoli fighting could be the fiercest," said Hayat Alvi, lecturer in Middle East politics at the United States Naval War College. "The wild card will be the Tripoli public. True loyalties will have to finally manifest themselves. I'm predicting in the rebels' favor, but we don't know what Gaddafi and his sons have up their sleeves," Reuter's reported.

But Saad Djebbar, a former lawyer for the Libyan government, told Reuters he believed many key figures loyal to Gaddafi had already fled to other countries in Africa such as Niger, Mali and Chad where they had good contacts.

"The big sharks have already left the scene, he said. "It's not going to be Stalingrad. Tripoli is very small. People know each other. People negotiate their way forward. Gaddafi is bound to have some people who will put up a symbolic fight. But these are mostly thugs and there is no organized force left of any size to check the rebels."

The rapid rebel advance provides NATO the chance to bring to a conclusion a campaign that has drawn increasing international criticism for either providing too much support for the rebel side or not being effective enough.

NATO officials deny there has been a fundamental shift in tactics in recent days to provide close air support to the advancing rebels, saying they continue to be focused on the protection of civilian populations as mandated by a U.N. Security Council resolution, the Washington Post reported. But some experts have long disputed their neutrality.

But NATO acknowledges that in a new development, alliance bombers are pummeling Gadhafi’s troops holding defensive positions around government-held towns and villages under attack from the advancing rebel forces.

“The persistent and cumulative action of NATO is creating an obvious effect,” NATO spokesman Col. Roland Lavoie said Sunday. “Pro-Gaddafi forces are gradually losing their capabilities to command, to conduct and to sustain” their actions.”