[NEWS] Libyan Rebels: Fight Goes to Tripoli

[Skilero]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/...20095027.shtml

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) - Heavy gunfire and explosions rattled the Libyan capital Saturday after rebels seized control of a major coastal city just west of Tripoli. Rebel commanders said the firing in the capital signaled the start of an attack on Muammar Qaddafi's main stronghold.

Gun battles and rounds of mortar shelling were heard clearly at the hotel where foreign correspondents stay in the capital. Explosions were heard in the area as NATO aircraft carried out heavy bombing runs after nightfall.

Col. Fadlallah Haroun, a rebel military commander in their stronghold of Benghazi said this marks the beginning of Operation Mermaid - a nickname for the capital city - an assault on Tripoli coordinated with NATO.

Haroun told The Associated Press that weapons were assembled and sent by tugboats to Tripoli on Friday night.

"The fighters in Tripoli are rising up in two places at the moment - some are in the Tajoura neighborhood and the other is near the Matiga (international) airport," he told the Arabic satellite channel Al-Jazeera.

[Skylar1]

Looks like the rebels are reaching the last stand

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- A NATO spokeswoman said Sunday that Moammar Gadhafi's "regime is crumbling," though the longtime Libyan ruler remained defiant in urging his countrymen to join him to stop "colonizers" and predicting an imminent "victory."
"I am with you in this fight. We will not give up," Gadhafi said in audio remarks broadcast on Libyan state television Sunday, speaking after the rebels' Transitional National Council political affairs chief Faithi Baja claimed that fighters were "inching" toward the leader's compound.
"The colonizers are trying to colonize the city of Tripoli, so they come with their army to invade our beloved Libya," Gadhafi said, "but we will not allow them to do so until the last blood drops from every man and woman."
But NATO -- which, under a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing force to protect Libyan civilians, has conducted 7,549 strike sorties in Libya since the end of March -- said that the conflict's end is near.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa...war/index.html