Updated 6:50 p.m. EST
Muammar Qaddafi is a fugitive tonight after rebels captured his fortified compound in Tripoli. Inside, they looted Qaddafi's home and armory.
CBS News correspondent Barry Petersen reports that Qaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound has been the goal from the beginning for the rebels. It was a symbol of his 42-year-long murderous rule and now the compound and the country are no longer his.
In a long day of fighting and dying, the rebels threw everything they had at trying to find Qadaffi and take his stronghold in the heart of Tripoli. They beat and killed the defenders who remained, but resistance was slim, and the rebels firepower overwhelming.
One rebel told CBS News: "We found many dead people and we opened the door and we found many guns underground."
In taking the compound, the rebels found more prizes then they could carry, but the big prize eluded them. The tyrant himself was nowhere to be found.
"We're looking for Qaddafi now. We have to find him now," said Sohaib Nefati, a rebel sitting against a wall with a Kalashnikov rifle.
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Associated Press reporters inside the compound said parts of it appeared to still be under control of government forces who were firing toward the rebels, making for an atmosphere of joyful celebration mixed with tension. The air was thick with smoke from the battles and the sound of crackling gunfire was constant. Rebels chanted "Allahu Akbar" or "God is Great" and on loudspeakers they cried: "Hamdullah, hamdullah" or "Thank God."
As the fighters stormed in, they captured a guard at the gates and threw him to the ground, slamming rifle butts into his back. A hostile crowd gathered around, punching and kicking him until one rebel stepped in, stood over him and kept the crowd at bay. Inside the walls, a few bodies of Qaddafi fighters - one with a gaping head wound from a gunshot - were sprawled on the ground.
Several young men wrenched the head from a statue of Qaddafi and kicked it around. One lifted it above his head while his jubilant comrades danced and yelled around him. Fighters with long beards hugged each other and flashed the "V'' for victory sign. Others carried injured rebels to ambulances.
A fighter climbed atop the iconic statue of a huge golden fist clenching a model of an American warplane and shot his machine gun in the air in celebration. The statue stands outside a building that was once Qaddafi's home, preserved with the pockmarks of an American bombing in 1986 as a symbol of his defiance.
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Bab al-Aziziya has since been pummeled many times over by NATO bombings in the air campaign against the regime that began in March.
Thousands of rebels converged on the compound after it was breached, snatching ammunition and arms from depots inside. They found brand-new rifles still in their paper wrappings.
The rebels carted out boxes of the weapons and ammunition, and some drove off with trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns on the back.
One drove out with a golf cart. Another walked out with a fan. Others were busy ripping down posters of Qaddafi.
Near Qaddafi's old home with the statue outside, the body of a dead regime loyalist lay inside a large tent with glass windows shot out. The body was partly covered by a blanket, the head sticking out with a gaping gunshot wound.
A second, much larger tent was on fire.
Qaddafi has a famous penchant for Bedouin-style tents, meant to symbolize his roots as a simple desert dweller. He received guests in the tents inside Bab al-Aziziya.
A shrine to Qaddafi's Green Book, a rambling treatise outlining his ruling philosophy, was torched, sending columns of black smoke over the compound.
The storming of the compound was a new high for the rebels in what has been an emotional roller coaster since they moved into Tripoli on Sunday night. It began with euphoria and claims that they had taken over most of the city with little resistance. The first night they partied in Green Square, a major symbol of the regime where Qaddafi supporters had held almost nightly rallies throughout the uprising. And it seemed Qaddafi rule was teetering on the brink of collapse.
In the early morning hours of Tuesday, there was a shocking setback. The rebels had claimed that they arrested Qaddafi's son and heir apparent, Saif al-Islam. It was confirmed by the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands, which has charged him and his father with crimes against humanity.
But inexplicably, Saif al-Islam showed up at the hotel where foreign journalists are staying under the close watch of regime minders in early morning hours of Tuesday. He giddily took reporters on eerie drive in the middle of the night to see hundreds of pro-regime gunmen around Bab al-Aziziya and at least a hundred more lined up outside, where guns were being handed out to volunteers.
By Tuesday morning, it looked like the capital might descend into bloody urban warfare. There was sporadic gunfire in many parts. The rebels were in control of parts of the city, though it was not clear how extensive their control really was. Then the fighting took focus around Qaddafi's compound.
The Libyan leader has not been heard from since Sunday, when rebels entered Tripoli and he delivered a series of angry and defiant audio messages that were apparently phoned in to state television.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the Russian head of the World Chess Federation who has known Qaddafi for year, said he spoke Tuesday by telephone with Qaddafi, who told him he was "alive and well and still in Tripoli." The report couldn't be independently confirmed.
In other parts of the capital, the rebels said they were also in control of state television. They raised their tricolor flag on the top of the building. Rebels claimed they also control the airport.
Libya's former deputy ambassador to the U.N. said he expected the entire country would be in rebel hands within 72 hours. Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi, who with other diplomats has continued to work at the Libyan mission since disavowing Qaddafi in February, said Tuesday he expects Libya will be "totally liberated."
Outside of Tripoli, the rebels have claimed control of much of the rest of the country. Qaddafi's hometown city of Sirte, some 250 miles southeast of the capital, was the most important bastion still fully under his control.
The rebels said heavily armed forces from the eastern front had advanced late Tuesday night to within a few miles of Sirte, halfway between Benghazi and Tripoli, and there was no sign of resistance. Col. Ahmed Bani, the rebel military spokesman, said they will try to avoid bloodshed by negotiating with tribal leaders of Sirte.
Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsMain/~3/Ru4MMn7RLGk/main20096312.shtml
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