Gaddafi's rule comes to an end and Britain calls for him to 'go now'

Gaddafi: defenders melted away in Tripoli and the dictator's eldest son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has been captured
12 April 2012

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's 40-year regime appeared to be crumbling today as euphoric Libyan rebels swept into Tripoli amid calls from Britain for the leader to "go now".

Jubilant fighters poured into the city's main square and celebrated with residents of the capital as Gaddafi's defenders melted away.

Opposition fighters captured the dictator's eldest son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, and the International Criminal Court said it would contact the rebels to discuss his handover for trial on charges of crimes against humanity.

A spokesman for the rebels said another of Gaddafi's sons, Mohammed, is reported to have been in contact with the rebels and is asking for guarantees for his safety.

It came after Downing Street said it was clear the "end is near" for the dictator.

"It is clear from the scenes we are witnessing in Tripoli that the end is near for Gaddafi," the No 10 statement said.

"He has committed appalling crimes against the people of Libya and he must go now to avoid any further suffering for his own people."

Fighters advanced 20 miles from the west with little resistance, overwhelming a military base and then pouring into Tripoli.

Although there were reports that fighting is continuing in some districts, cheering, clapping and celebratory shooting broke out in Green Square, the symbolic heart of the regime, as ecstatic Libyans waved the rebels' tri-colour flag. Others set fire to the green flag of Gaddafi's regime.

Nour Eddin Shatouni, a resident who joined the celebrations, said: "Now we don't call it the Green Square, but we call it Martyrs' Square."
Thousands also celebrated in Benghazi, and Libyans in Britain were said to be celebrating in London's Edgware Road.

Gaddafi's whereabouts where unknown, but Libyan information ministry spokesman Moussa Ibrahim insisted earlier that his loyalists would stand and fight, warning that they had nothing to lose.

"We are still very strong. We have thousands and thousands of fighters who have nowhere to go but to fight," he said, in a dramatic news conference.

He said that the rebels would not have been able to make the advances they had without the support of Nato and he accused the alliance of turning the city into a "hellfire", with 1,300 killed in the fighting.

He issued an apparently vain appeal for a ceasefire and insisted that there had to be a role for Gaddafi in the country or his supporters would be "easy prey for the hateful vengeful side".

However his claims of a bloodbath were dismissed by Guma El-Gamaty, the London representative of the rebel National Transitional Council.

"There will be no bloodbath, there will be no mass killings," he told Sky News.
"If it hasn't fallen already, it is falling very fast," he said of the regime. "Gaddafi is nowhere to be known, or found, or seen. There will be no people coming out en masse on Gaddafi's side."

Libya's ambassador to the United Nations Ibrahim Dabbashi, who switched to the rebel side, said: "This is not the beginning of the end, it is the end."

He told the BBC that Gaddafi could be "replaced" by rebel officials "within a few hours".
Nato Secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Gaddafi's regime was "clearly crumbling" and that the time to create a new Libya had arrived.

In a statement, US president Barack Obama said Gaddafi and his regime must recognise that its rule in Libya has come to an end.

Earlier yesterday the rebels overran the base of the elite 32nd Brigade commanded by Gaddafi's son, Khamis - a major symbol of the regime 16 miles west of Tripoli.

As night fell a convoy of rebel trucks headed into the city with apparently no resistance from Gaddafi's forces to stand in their way.

Earlier there had been reports of heavy fighting in the capital as what the rebels called "sleeping cells" in the city launched a second day of attacks on the regime forces.

Col Gaddafi last night issued a fresh appeal on state television for Libyans to save the capital.
In a series of angry and defiant audio messages, he called on his supporters to march in the streets of the capital and "purify it" from "the rats". He was not shown in the messages.

The near-collapse of the regime will come has a huge relief to David Cameron who combined with French president Nicolas Sarkozy to launch international airstrikes to protect the rebels last March.

But with the Gaddafi regime stubbornly hanging on, the Prime Minister had increasingly seen the wisdom of his strategy questioned.

The challenge now for the allies will be to help secure as peaceful transition as possible to a democratic government.

Britain has insisted that it will not send peacekeeping troops, but has said that it would assist in other ways.

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