Fighting raged yesterday as Muammar Gaddafi’s troops fought back near his Tripoli compound a day after it was captured, while rebels offered a $1.7 million reward for the elusive strongman, dead or alive.
As the United Nations called a meeting to discuss the unlocking by backers of the insurgency of billions of dollars of Libyan assets, France said it had invited “friends of Libya” to a forum in September on the country’s future.
Meanwhile, Washington said Libya’s stockpile of weapons of mass destruction had been secured and that it was confident the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) could set up governing structures after overrunning Tripoli.
As a group of mostly foreign journalists who had been confined to Tripoli’s Rixos Hotel were freed. Italian media said four Italian journalists were kidnapped in Libya and two French journalists were wounded in Tripoli.
The rebels also made key diplomatic gains when two of Colonel Gaddafi’s staunchest African allies – Chad and Burkina Faso – said they recognised the NTC as the sole representative of the Libyan people.
During the afternoon, thick smoke hung over the Bab al-Aziziya complex, where rebels and Gaddafi forces were fighting with light arms, heavy machine guns, rocket propelled grenades and mortars, an AFP reporter said.
Fighting also spread to the nearby Abu Slim area, where loyalists were on the attack, in marked contrast to Tuesday’s battle for Bab al-Aziziya when they had fled as the rebels breached the gates.
However, rebel commanders said they were determined to push the loyalist troops out of the area.
Many streets were deserted, with commanders saying dozens of pro-Gaddafi snipers had taken up positions.
“There are snipers above and around the perimeter of Bab al-Aziziya; there are dozens of them but we don’t know where they are,” said a rebel chief, Nuri Mohammed.
A rebel military spokesman speaking to Al-Jazeera television said “Libyan territory is 90 to 95 per cent under the control of the rebellion.”
Colonel Abdullah Abu Afra said “the fall of Bab al-Aziziyah marked the end of the Gaddafi regime in Tripoli and in Libya.”
Rebels said they had found no trace of Col Gaddafi when they swarmed through his compound on Tuesday, and his whereabouts and his family’s remain a mystery.
However, the former colonel broadcast a message early yesterday on the website of a TV station headed by his son, Seif al-Islam. He said he had abandoned his compound in a “tactical withdrawal” after it had been wrecked by Nato warplanes.
“Bab al-Aziziya was nothing but a heap of rubble after it was the target of 64 Nato missiles, and we withdrew from it for tactical reasons,” he said.
In a later audio message on Syria-based Arrai Oruba television, Col Gaddafi boasted that he had taken to the streets of Tripoli without being recognised.
“I walked incognito, without anyone seeing me, and I saw youths ready to defend their city,” he said, without specifying when he had done his walkabout.
He also urged “the residents, the tribes, the elderly to go into the streets ... and cleanse Tripoli of rats” – referring to the rebels.
Wherever he may be, the rebel National Transitional Council wants him, dead or alive, and has put a $1.7 million (€1.2 million) price on his head.
“The NTC supports the initiative of businessmen who are offering two million dinars for the capture of Muammar Gaddafi, dead or alive,” NTC chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil said in Benghazi.
Abdel Jalil also offered amnesty to “members of (Col Gaddafi’s) close circle who kill him or capture him”. Gaddafi spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told Arrai Oruba that more than 6,500 “volunteers” had arrived in Tripoli to fight for the regime, and called for more.
Rebels who secured Tripoli’s airport on Sunday said it was still under sporadic attack by Gaddafi fighters, with snipers along the road from the city, and that a rocket had damaged an airplane on the runway on Tuesday.
Manager Arabi Mustafa said that once the security problems are resolved and water and electricity restored, the airport would be reopened.
Elsewhere, rebels advancing towards Sirte were blocked yesterday in the town of Bin Jawad as loyalists kept up a stiff resistance.
After taking Ras Lanuf, 150 kilometres west of Sirte, the rebels had advanced up to Bin Jawad, but were stopped by heavy artillery fire, rebel commander Fawzi Bukatif said.
“Gaddafi’s forces are still fighting, we are surprised. We thought they would surrender with the fall of Tripoli,” Mr Bukatif said in the nearby coastal town of Zuwaytina.
“Maybe something or somebody is behind them,” he said, adding “maybe” when asked if he was referring to Col Gaddafi or his sons.