TRIPOLI, Aug 23, (Agencies): Triumphant rebels seized Muammar Gaddafi’s compound in Tripoli on Tuesday after a fierce battle with a loyalist rearguard but there was no word on the fate of the Libyan leader who vowed again to fight “to the end”.

Reuters journalists watched rebel fighters stream through the sprawling Bab al-Aziziya headquarters compound, firing in the air in celebration after hours of heavy clashes. But it was unclear whether the “Brother Leader” or his sons were still somewhere in the complex’s maze of buildings and bunkers.
Defensive fire died away and hundreds of jubilant rebels poured in. Some smashed a statue of Gaddafi. Others hunted through dozens of buildings, unchallenged, seizing weaponry and vehicles. The rebels’ envoy to the United Nations said the area was “totally in the hands of the revolutionaries”.
One man shouted: “It’s over. Gaddafi is finished.”

The Russian head of the World Chess Federation, who visited Gaddafi in Tripoli in June, said he had received a call from him on Tuesday afternoon in which Gaddafi said he was still in the capital. He “is in Tripoli, he is alive and healthy and is prepared to fight to the end”, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov told Reuters.
The rebels’ envoy in Rome, Hafed Gaddur, said: “It seems clear that he is confined to his bunker complesx.”
“We thought Tripoli would be liberated in one month or perhaps even two months, instead that happened in just a few hours, a day, so we’ve made great progress,” he told Reuters.

Western governments, which have backed disparate opposition groups, said they could not be sure where the 69-year-old leader was but urged him to surrender after six months of civil war which have put an end to his four decades of absolute power.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said after speaking to US President Barack Obama that the end of Gaddafi’s rule was “inevitable and near”.

NATO, which declined to confirm reports that its air forces bombed Gaddafi’s compound to aid the rebels, said Gaddafi’s whereabouts were unclear but no longer a major concern.

In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman said he believed Gaddafi was still in Libya and that his forces remained a threat. He also said the United States was monitoring chemical weapons sites in Libya, amid worries that groups hostile to Western interests could try to seize stocks once built up by Gaddafi.
Western leaders are anxious for a rapid end to fighting — tensions among rebels are a concern for those hoping for a swift return of order and a reopening of Libyan oil exports.

“We hope this is over soon,” said an unemployed engineer watching events near Gaddafi’s compound. “I fear that the violence will continue until Gaddafi and his family have left the country,” he added, giving his name only as Omar.

Another bystander said: “Gaddafi is finished, even if some snipers and mercenaries are still resisting. But there is no doubt that we are free and Gaddafi is finished.”

There are growing concerns for civilians in the city, after days of siege and fighting in which officials have suggested hundreds of combatants may have been killed or wounded.
At a private house several miles from the centre, wounded from the fighting were being treated, to the sound of gunfire.

“We need medication and stretchers, this situation is a disaster,” medical student Shuaib Rais told Reuters.
Speaking after Gaddafi’s son and long-time heir-apparent Saif al-Islam confounded rebel claims of his capture by appearing to journalists at the Bab al-Aziziya compound early on Tuesday, several analysts said the credibility of the disparate opposition movement had suffered a serious setback.
Though the credibility of Saif al-Islam’s claims that his father’s supporters were winning the war was also threadbare, confusion among the rebels, who seemed to have allowed two of Gaddafi’s sons to escape on Monday, embarrassed their backers.

Noman Benotman, senior analyst at Britain’s Quilliam think tank and an associate of Gaddafi’s former spy chief, said: “Gaddafi is banking on the rebels making a mess of Tripoli and causing chaos. He is relying on them to behave badly.

“They want rival militia zones to start springing up ... That’s why it’s critical for the rebels to get their act together.”

Residents, many of whom had taken to the streets on Sunday to celebrate the end of Gaddafi’s 42-year rule, stayed indoors as the irregular rebel armies that swept the capital ran into resistance from sharpshooters, tanks and other heavy weaponry.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his family are still in Tripoli, where his troops were engaged in fierce fighting with rebels outside his compound on Tuesday, his son Seif al-Islam said.
“Gaddafi and the entire family are in Tripoli,” Seif told reporters at the Rixos hotel in the capital where many foreign journalists are housed.

He declined to give the precise location of the embattled strongman but his comments mark the first indication by the family of his whereabouts since rebel forces surged into the capital on Sunday.
Seif also said that the regime’s forces had deliberately not tried to prevent the rebels from entering the capital.

“Allowing the rebels to enter Tripoli was a trick,” he said, without elaborating.
Nato, meanwhile, said Gaddafi was “not a target” for the military alliance.
“Nato does not target individuals,” said Operation Unified Protector spokesman, Colonel Roland Lavoie.
“Gaddafi does not constitute a target,” he told reporters in Brussels via video-conference from the mission’s Naples headquarters.

Former Croatian president Stipe Mesic who has close ties Muammar Gaddafi said Tuesday that the Libyan leader told him he was ready to step down from political life if Nato ended airstrikes.
“I can confirm that colonel Gaddafi is ready to retreat completely from political and public life with a firm engagement that we would impede the setting up of a multi party system but on the condition that the Nato airstrikes cease,” Mesic said in a statement quoted by Hina news agency.
Libya’s stock of chemical weapons, including over 10 tons of mustard gas, are under strict US surveillance, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

“We have been and continue to monitor chemical weapons sites,” spokesman Colonel David Lapan said.
Muammar Gaddafi’s regime joined the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in 2004 after renouncing weapons of mass destruction in December 2003, but still had to eliminate 11.25 tons of mustard gas when the uprising to remove him from power began in February.

All 3,563 munitions — such as bombs, shells and missiles — that could serve as a carrier to distribute mustard gas have, however, been destroyed, according to the OPCW.
Mustard gas depots are located at Rabta, about 100 kms (60 miles) south of Tripoli and at the Ruwagha site in Al-Jufra, south of Sirte.

Under rules of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Libya signed onto, such plants must remain closed or destroyed.

World leaders on Monday hailed the rebel takeover of Tripoli, urging Muammar Gaddafi to admit defeat, as Libyans around the globe celebrated the veteran strongman’s imminent demise.
The dramatic push to wrest full control of the Libyan capital from Gaddafi loyalists was seen as the end-game in the six-month uprising against his 42-year rule.
“The Libya that you deserve is within your reach,” US President Barack Obama said in a message to Libya’s insurgents, cautioning “there will be huge challenges ahead.”
Obama vowed that Washington will be “a friend and a partner” in the country’s future and urged “an inclusive transition that leads to a democratic Libya.”

As the leaders who supported the uprising stressed that Libya’s fate should be decided by Libyans, they piled pressure on one of the planet’s longest-standing dictators.
“Although it’s clear that Gaddafi’s rule is over, he still has the opportunity to reduce further bloodshed by explicitly relinquishing power,” Obama said in a hastily arranged public appearance as he vacationed on the resort island of Martha’s Vineyard.

Announcing a special Libya summit with the heads of the European Union, Arab League and African Union this week in New York, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on Gaddafi’s fighters to “cease violence immediately and make way for a smooth transition.”
“This is a hopeful moment, but there are risks ahead,” Ban said.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country spearheaded support for the rebels and was the first to recognise their administration, condemned Gaddafi’s “irresponsible and desperate calls for the combat to continue.”

Sarkozy urged “forces still loyal to the regime to turn away from the criminal and cynical blindness of their leader, to cease fire.”
Sarkozy’s office said he had invited the prime minister of the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) to meet him in Paris on Wednesday while France said it would host a summit of the international “Contact Group” coordinating a response to the conflict.
Diplomats from the Contact Group will first meet on Thursday “to coordinate next steps,” the US State Department said.
Spain meanwhile called for the “adoption as quickly as possible of new (UN) resolution” to take into account the latest developments.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who signed a 2008 friendship treaty that made the former colonial power Libya’s top trading partner, urged Gaddafi to “put an end to every pointless resistance”.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed “the beginning of the breakdown of... Gaddafi’s regime” and said the international community needed to move quickly “to enable a transition to a peaceful, free and democratic society because Libyans have suffered too much.”
Leading European Union figures also called for Gaddafi to quit.
“We seem to be witnessing the end of the Gaddafi regime,” said Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton. “Gaddafi has to relinquish power now and avoid further bloodshed.”
Mann also urged the rebel forces to “fully respect humanitarian and human rights law and protect citizens”, as they gain control of the country.
The Arab League declared “full solidarity” with the rebels while Libya’s neighbour Egypt, where Hosni Mubarak had to quit power following a popular revolt earlier this year, officially recognised their administration.
In Libya’s other neighbour Tunisia, whose popular uprising earlier this year launched the Arab Spring protest movements, the foreign ministry hailed “the victory of the Libyan revolution” as a “historic change of great importance.”
Morocco officially recognised late Monday the rebels’ National Transitional Council (NTC) as the “only legitimate representative” of the Libyan people.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said that “Gaddafi must stop fighting, without conditions, and clearly show that he has given up any claim to control Libya,” while Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper called on the Libyan people to “now chart their own democratic course.”
NATO, whose aerial bombing played a key role in weakening the regime’s military infrastructure, urged Gaddafi to give his country a chance to rebuild.
It is “time to create a new Libya — a state based on freedom, not fear; democracy, not dictatorship; the will of the many, not the whims of a few,” alliance head Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.
Hundreds of jubilant Libyans converged on their embassies and consulates in Europe and elsewhere to raise the rebel flag and tear down the symbols of Gaddafi’s rule. Diplomatic staff at some embassies also announced they were joining the rebels.
Demonstrators at embassies tore Gaddafi portraits, hauled down his regime’s green flag and ripped up copies of his Green Book, the 1975 text in which Gaddafi laid out his philosophy.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an old Gaddafi ally, was a lone voice of foreign support for the crumbling regime, accusing the West of “destroying Tripoli with their bombs.”
China was measured in its reaction and promised to cooperate with whatever government would take over, while Russia urged any future political dialogue in Libya to take place without foreign interference.
Looking to the future, Washington said it was working with international partners on ways to continue financing the NTC, while the World Bank said it would “reengage with Libya just as soon as we can be helpful in the country’s recovery.”
The oil market was quick to react, with crude prices sliding on prospects of output in one of Africa’s top producers getting fully back on stream and easing pressure on supply to Europe.

Syria
Kuwait on Monday stressed the need for Syria to cooperate with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, and for comprehensive reforms that fulfill the hopes and aspirations of the Syrian people.
“These reforms should begin immediately,” Kuwait’s permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Dhirar Rezougi said in an address to the Human Rights Council, calling on Syria to work in accordance with recent efforts aimed at putting a stop to the bloodshed of its people and to steer clear of any foreign interference that could arise.
“Kuwait backs the formation of an independent committee to investigate all of the happenings and circumstances and for to present its verdict in a report to the (Human Rights) Council,” he added, noting to a UN fact-finding mission report that highlighted severe human rights breaches.
Rezougi affirmed Kuwait’s reverence of the sovereignty of Syrian lands, stressing that the country is a member of several human rights accords, which requires complete obligation to these commitments.
However, he expressed some optimism that “wisdom would surface in the end,” warning that “wrong decisions would be followed by grave mistakes that could lead to detrimental results.” Kuwait was one of the first countries to step forward and announce its position condemning the continued bloodshed, calling for dialogue and a political solution that could usher in actual reform to fulfill the legitimate demands of the Syrian people, he said.
Furthermore, the Gulf Cooperation Council followed with a statement, expressing its extreme anxiety and utter sorrow over the deteriorating situation in Syria and the increasing acts of violence and excessive use of force which have led to many deaths and injuries of Syrian civilians, calling for an immediate stop to these acts and resorting to good judgment and necessary reform.
The UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday ordered a probe into violations committed by the Syrian regime during its crackdown on popular protests.
By 33 votes to four, with nine abstentions, the council passed a resolution to “urgently dispatch an independent international commission of inquiry... to investigate alleged violations of international human rights law ... in the Syrian Arab Republic.”
Investigators have been asked to establish the facts and circumstances of violations and to identify the perpetrators so that they can be held accountable.
The UN rights council called the emergency session on the situation in Syria, as investigators concluded that widespread and systematic rights violations have been committed by President Bashar al-Assad’s regime since peaceful demonstrations began in mid-March.
Opening the meeting on Monday, UN rights chief Navi Pillay told the council that 2,200 people had been killed since the mass protests began.
However, China, Russia and Cuba led the opposition against the council’s resolution, saying that it was one-sided and politicised.
“The draft remains one-sided and politicised. It does not take into account positive steps by the Syrian leadership to stabilise the country, its willingness to engage in conversation,” said a Russian diplomat.
He also charged that the resolution “is aimed at removing a legitimate government.”
China’s envoy added that by adopting the resolution, “the council will only complicate the situation, and injure the political process in Syria.”
Syria’s representative also dismissed the resolution as “100 percent political.”
Syrian security forces killed at least seven people in the restive central city of Homs soon after a UN humanitarian assessment team left the area because the security situation was deteriorating, activists said Tuesday.

Monday’s bloodshed came as the overall death toll from President Bashar Assad’s crackdown on the 5-month-old uprising in Syria reached 2,200, the United Nations said.
EU governments formally adopted sanctions on Tuesday against 15 more people and five businesses, but stopped short of concrete moves to impose a full oil embargo on Damascus.
The list of names covered by asset freezes and travel bans now runs to 50 people and nine businesses, with legal enforcement entering play when they are published in Wednesday’s legislative log, the EU’s Official Journal.
But a diplomat told AFP on Tuesday that despite a first discussion in Brussels on the oil embargo, “no clear decision has yet been taken”, with London in particular determined to ensure that sanctions do not impact on the Syrian people.
The source said: “We are in a process of working through what further tools we want to use.
“We are open to all options — the oil embargo, sanctions on banks and telecoms, in line with the Americans — but we want to make sure sanctions are targeted at the Assad regime.