TRIPOLI, Libya — Latest updates:

Rebels say they have seized state TV
Opposition claims to control 95 percent of Tripoli
Gadhafi's location unknown; two of Libyan leader's sons in hands of opposition
Rebel chief: "We want to build a state based on freedom, justice, equality and transparency"
Obama: Libya "slipping from the grasp of a tyrant"
Richard Engel of NBC News: "Tripoli is falling but hasn't fallen yet"
Libyan government tanks and snipers put up scattered, last-ditch resistance in Tripoli on Monday after rebels swept into the heart of the capital, cheered on by crowds hailing the end of Moammar Gadhafi's 42 years in power.

The 69-year-old leader, urging civilians to take up arms against rebel "rats," said in an audio broadcast that he was in the city and would be "with you until the end." But there was little sign of popular opposition to the rebel offensive.

"Gadhafi is finished. Now we are free," one rebel, named Abdullah, told a Reuters reporter over the sound of gunfire and shelling, as his group consolidated its position to the west of the city center.

Two of Gadhafi's sons were captured by the rebels but there was no sign of the dictator.

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Advertise | AdChoicesAdvertise | AdChoicesAdvertise | AdChoicesMahmud Nacua, the Libyan rebels' top diplomat in London, told reporters that opposition forces controlled 95 percent of the city. Although Gadhafi's whereabouts were unknown, Nacua said "the fighters will turn over every stone to find him, to arrest him, and to put him in the court."

NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel said that while the rebels had made great advances in Tripoli, victory wasn't yet theirs.

"Tripoli is falling but hasn't completely fallen yet," he said from the capital.

Heavy fighting was reported near Gadhafi's compound on Monday morning.

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UGC It's A Snap! Vote for your favorite travel photo According to Al Arabiya television, another of Gadhafi's sons, al-Mutassim, is in the Bab al-Azizya compound.

'They fired randomly'
Rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Rahman said tanks emerged from the complex, known as Bab al-Aziziya, and began firing shortly after dawn.

Nouri Echtiwi, another rebel spokesman in Tripoli, told Reuters: "Four hours of calm followed the street celebrations. Then tanks and pick-up trucks with heavy machine guns mounted on the back came out of Bab al-Aziziya , and started firing and shelling. They fired randomly in all directions whenever they heard gunfire."

Video: Gadhafi rule crumbles as rebels surge (on this page)
Bab al-Aziziya, a sprawling compound that long served as the command center for the regime, has been heavily damaged by repeated NATO airstrikes over the past five months.

Tripoli resident Moammar al-Warfali, whose family home is next to Bab al-Aziziya, said tanks rolled out from the compound after a group of rebels tried to get in. He said there appeared to be only a few tanks belonging to the remaining Gadhafi forces that have not fled or surrendered.

But rebel chief Mustafa Abdel-Jalil was more cautious about Monday's developments.

"The real moment of victory will be when Gadhafi is captured," he said at a press conference in rebel stronghold Benghazi. "We will see many changes and the Libyan people have to realize that the next stage is not going to be easy."

Later Monday, Libya's Jamahiriyah state television channel went off the air. According to rebel spokesman, forces opposed to Gadhafi had taken control of the station's headquarters in Tripoli.

Advertise | AdChoicesAdvertise | AdChoicesAdvertise | AdChoices"The revolutionaries stormed the television building , after killing the soldiers surrounding it. It is now under their control," the spokesman said. He was speaking after television screens airing the Jamahiriyah station went blank.

After six months of an often meandering revolt backed by NATO air power, world leaders were in no doubt that the disparate and often fractious rebel alliance was about to take control of the North African desert state and its extensive oil reserves.

Story: With Gadhafi out of power, oil prices should fall
The startling rebel breakthrough , after a long deadlock in Libya's 6-month-old civil war, was the culmination of a closely coordinated plan by rebels, NATO and anti-Gadhafi residents inside Tripoli, rebel leaders said. Rebel fighters from the west swept over 20 miles in a matter of hours Sunday, taking town after town and overwhelming a major military base as residents poured out to cheer them. At the same time, Tripoli residents secretly armed by rebels rose up.


Reuters TV
Men celebrate the arrival of rebel fighters in Tripoli in the streets of Misrata, Libya, on Monday. When rebels reached the gates of Tripoli, the special battalion entrusted by Gadhafi with guarding the capital promptly surrendered. The reason: Its commander, whose brother had been executed by Gadhafi years ago, was secretly loyal to the rebellion, a senior rebel official, Fathi al-Baja, told The Associated Press.

Al-Arabiya reported Monday that some snipers around Green Square — which was hastily renamed Martyrs' Square by the rebels — were surrendering to opposition forces.

Al-Jazeera quoted rebels as saying that one of Gadhafi's bodyguards had been detained while trying to escape.

Story: Can anyone unite Libya if Gadhafi falls?
However, some warned of a risk of a longer, anarchic civil war after what has been the bloodiest of the Arab Spring uprisings inspired by the overthrow of autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt.

President Barack Obama said said Libya was "slipping from the grasp of a tyrant" and urged Gadhafi to accept defeat.

'We are watching history'
South Africa denied it had sent a plane for Gadhafi or was planning to shelter a leader who has been indicted for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Sweden's prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said: "We are watching history."

But he cited the example of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and warned: "There is a risk for actions of revenge, and uncontrollable violence. These are tribal groups who are fighting against their oppressors. One knows what one is against, but it is not always equally clear what one is for and people can be for different things."

Two of Gadhafi's sons, including Seif al-Islam, who was once seen as heir apparent and a potential friend of the West, were detained. Gadhafi's eldest son Mohammed also surrendered to rebel forces.

Advertise | AdChoicesAdvertise | AdChoicesAdvertise | AdChoicesCiting a source close to Gadhafi's inner circle, NBC News reported that Seif al-Islam had tried to flee Tripoli while disguised as a woman.

Gadhafi's former right-hand man, who defected last week to Italy, said the longtime leader would not go easily.

"I think it's impossible that he'll surrender," Abdel-Salam Jalloud said in an interview broadcast on Italian RAI state radio. "He doesn't have the courage, like Hitler, to kill himself."

Late on Sunday, rebels waving opposition flags and firing into the air drove into Green Square, a symbolic showcase the government had until recently used for mass demonstrations in support of Gadhafi.

"It's over, frizz-head," chanted hundreds of jubilant men and women massed in Green Square late Sunday, using a mocking nickname of the curly-haired Gadhafi.

Video: Can Libya's rebels go from fighters to governors? (on this page)
Youths burned the green, Islamic flags of the government and raised the rebel tricolor last used by the post-colonial monarchy which Gadhafi overthrew in a military coup in 1969.

Gadhafi earlier had made two audio addresses over state television calling on Libyans to fight off the rebels. "I am afraid if we don't act, they will burn Tripoli," he said. "There will be no more water, food, electricity or freedom."

Story: 'Libya will go down in history as the anti-Iraq'
Gadhafi said he was breaking out weapons stores to arm civilians. His spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, predicted a violent reckoning by the rebels.

"A massacre will be committed inside Tripoli if one side wins now, because the rebels have come with such hatred, such vendetta," Ibrahim said on Sunday. "Even if the leader leaves or steps down now, there will be a massacre."

Video: Haass: This is the end of the beginning in Libya (on this page)
NATO officials said the alliance would continue its combat air patrols over Libya until all pro-Gadhafi forces surrender or return to barracks.

In Benghazi, thousands gathered in a central square. Many trampled on pictures of Gadhafi as news filtered through of rebel triumphs.

A Libyan government official told Reuters that 376 people on both sides of the conflict were killed in fighting overnight on Saturday in Tripoli, with about 1,000 others wounded.

Advertise | AdChoicesAdvertise | AdChoicesAdvertise | AdChoicesBrutal crackdown
The uprising against Gadhafi broke out in mid-February, inspired by successful revolts in Egypt and Tunisia.

A brutal regime crackdown quickly transformed the protests into an armed rebellion. Rebels seized Libya's east, setting up an internationally recognized transitional government there, and two pockets in the west, the port city of Misrata and the Nafusa mountain range.

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Text NEWS to 67622 to receive mobile alerts Gadhafi clung to the remaining territory, and for months neither side had been able to break the other.

In early August, however, rebels launched an offensive from the Nafusa Mountains, then fought their way down to the Mediterranean coastal plain, backed by NATO airstrikes, and captured the strategic city of Zawiya.

The rebels' leadership council, based in the eastern city of Benghazi, sent out mobile text messages to Tripoli residents, proclaiming, "Long live Free Libya" and urging them to protect public property. Internet service returned to the capital for the first time in six months.

Gadhafi is the Arab world's longest-ruling, most erratic, most grimly fascinating leader — presiding over this North African desert nation with vast oil reserves and just 6 million people.

For years, he was an international pariah blamed for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people. After years of denial, Gadhafi's Libya acknowledged responsibility, agreed to pay up to $10 million to relatives of each victim, and the Libyan rule declared he would dismantle his weapons of mass destruction program. That eased him back into the international community.

NBC News, The Associated Press, Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44224936/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/?GT1=43001

Moammar Gadhafi's forty two years of rule came to an end Sunday. Rebel insurgents have overtaken the capital city of Tripoli. Thousands cheer in the streets today as Gadhafi remains hiding. Gadhafi made a speech which fueled the rebellion and emboldened many to join the cause. In the speech, Gadhafi promised to hunt down protestors “inch by inch, room by room, home by home, alleyway by alleyway.” Now, Tripoli falls to rebel forces. Citizens, secretly armed by rebels, rose up and joined them. The future of Libya is now in the hands of the Libyan people itself. Not only that. Internet service returned to Tripoli today for the first time in six months. Rebel leaders sent text messages to the city’s residents, saying “Long live free Libya.” I just hope and pray that they'll be enlightened and  this chaos will end.

They had been secretly armed during the six-month civil war, waiting for the key moment to strike.

The rebels fought in isolated parts of the city, taking on snipers and other gunmen loyal to Gaddafi's regime.

Six months of civil war came to an end Sunday as rebels swiftly moved in and took control of Tripoli with surprising ease. Despite remaining pockets of resistance, Gadhafi’s forces crumbled and faded into the shadows. President Obama announced his support of the rebels from Martha’s Vineyard, where he is vacationing.

A war affecting worldwide oil industry.The rebel assault on Tripoli Sunday, which overthrew Libyan strongman Gadhafi, could soon lead to lower gas costs in the U.S. and abroad.Confusion remains, however, as to the extent of the rebel victory. Related article I read entitled:Gadhafi's removal could translate to lower gasoline prices . Price control amidst challenging economic situation.