Libyan government tanks and snipers put up scattered, last-ditch resistance in Tripoli on Monday after rebels swept into the heart of the capital, cheered on by crowds hailing the end of Moammar Gadhafi's 42 years in power.
The 69-year-old leader, urging civilians to take up arms against rebel "rats," said in an audio broadcast that he was in the city and would be "with you until the end." But there was little sign of popular opposition to the rebel offensive.
"Gadhafi is finished. Now we are free," one rebel, named Abdullah, told a Reuters reporter over the sound of gunfire and shelling, as his group consolidated its position to the west of the city center.
Two of Gadhafi's sons were captured by the rebels but there was no sign of the dictator.
Mahmud Nacua, the Libyan rebels' top diplomat in London, told reporters that opposition forces controlled 95 percent of the city. Although Gadhafi's whereabouts were unknown, Nacua said "the fighters will turn over every stone to find him, to arrest him, and to put him in the court."
Heavy fighting was reported near Gadhafi's compound on Monday morning.
Bab al-Aziziya, a sprawling compound that long served as the command center for the regime, has been heavily damaged by repeated NATO airstrikes over the past five months.
Tripoli resident Moammar al-Warfali, whose family home is next to Bab al-Aziziya, said tanks rolled out from the compound after a group of rebels tried to get in. He said there appeared to be only a few tanks belonging to the remaining Gadhafi forces that have not fled or surrendered.
After six months of an often meandering revolt backed by NATO air power, world leaders were in no doubt that the disparate and often fractious rebel alliance was about to take control of the North African desert state and its extensive oil reserves.

Read Profile of Ghadafi's 8 Children including the arrest of Saif al-Islam