Rebels Break Into Gadhafi’s Main Tripoli Compound

Libyan rebel soldiers are said to have forced their way into Moammar Gadhafi’s military compound in Tripoli after fighting back soldiers who remained loyal to the dictator.

NATO announced that it will support the rebel soldiers and bomb Gadhafi’s forces if they continue fighting. –BF

CBS/AP:

Hundreds of Libyan rebels have stormed Qaddafi’s main military compound after a resistance of troops loyal to him backed down. The Reuters news agency reported that the rebels were firing their guns in celebration.

Some of the heaviest fighting was around Qaddafi’s Bab al-Aziziya main compound and military barracks. Rebels and pro-regime troops fought fierce street battles in several parts of the city, a day after opposition fighters swept into the capital with relative ease, claiming to have most of it under their control.

Earlier, CBS News correspondent Barry Petersen, reporting with the rebels, described the area about 300 yards from Qaddafi’s main compound as though it was out of the 1979 apocalyptic film “Mad Max.”

“They’re kneeling down because this is really Dead Man’s Alley,” Petersen told CBS Radio News. “They’re open to sniper fire. The government troops are up in high-rise buildings. This area in front of me, a highway, is open season once you get out there.”

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