Libyan rebels claimed to be in control of most of the Libyan capital on Monday after their lightning advance on Tripoli heralded the fall of Muammar Qaddafi's nearly 42-year regime. Scattered battles erupted, and the mercurial leader's whereabouts remained unknown.
Rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Rahman, who was in Tripoli, warned of pockets of resistance and said as long as Qaddafi remains on the run the "danger is still there."
Clashes broke out early Monday at Qaddafi's longtime command center known as Bab al-Aziziya early Monday when government tanks emerged from the complex and opened fire at rebels trying to get in, according to Abdel-Rahman and a neighbor. An AP reporter at the nearby Rixos Hotel where foreign journalists stay heard gunfire and loud explosions from the direction of the complex.
CBS News correspondent Barry Petersen reports eyewitness accounts of several tanks emerging to protect Qaddafi's stronghold, but their effort sounded weak and by some accounts dispirited.
"Bab al-Aziziya and the surrounding areas are still out of our control," said rebel leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil at a press conference Monday in Benghazi. "We have no knowledge of Qaddafi being there, or whether he is still in or outside Libya."
The Rixos also remained under the control of Qaddafi forces, with two trucks loaded with anti-aircraft machine guns and pro-regime fighters and snipers posted behind trees.
Al-Arabiya is reporting clashes in central Tripoli between rebels and troops controlled by one of Qaddafi's sons.
The rebels' top diplomat in London, Mahmud Nacua, said opposition forces controlled 95 percent of Tripoli. He vowed "the fighters will turn over every stone to find" Qaddafi and make sure he faced justice.
But Qaddafi'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, adding that "He doesn't have the courage, like Hitler, to kill himself."
In other developments:
In New York U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on Qaddafi's forces to "cease violence immediately and make way for peaceful transition."
Libyan state television TV has gone off the air, with Reuters reporting its studio headquarters is now under rebel control.
Al-Arabiya television is reporting fierce fighting between rebels and pro-Gaddafi forces near the Tunisian border.
The rebels have confirmed a third of Qaddafi's seven sons - Saadi al-Gaddafi, a professional footballer who had an unspecified military function during the civil war - was arrested.
Egypt has officially recognized the Libyan National Council as the new legitimate government of Libya, according to AFP.
The Western alliance promised to maintain its air campaign until all pro-Qaddafi forces surrender or return to their barracks. (NATO warplanes have hit at least 40 targets in and around Tripoli in the past two days.) "NATO is ready to work with the Libyan people and with the Transitional National Council, which holds a great responsibility," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a statement. "They must make sure that the transition is smooth and inclusive, that the country stays united, and that the future is founded on reconciliation and respect for human rights."
U.S. President Barack Obama said momentum against the Qaddafi regime "has reached a tipping point." "Tripoli is slipping from the grasp of a tyrant," Mr. Obama said in a statement from Martha's Vineyard. "The people of Libya are showing that the universal pursuit of dignity and freedom is far stronger than the iron fist of a dictator." He promised to work closely with rebels.
The European Union on Monday urged Qaddafi to step down immediately and avoid further bloodshed, and said it stands ready to help Libya's interim administration carry out reforms in the future.
In London, British Prime Minister David Cameron said frozen Libyan assets would soon be released to help the country's rebels establish order, saying Qaddafi's regime was "falling apart and in full retreat."
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