ZAWIYA, Libya -- Fierce street fights broke out in several neighborhoods of Tripoli on Saturday night, according to Tripoli residents and rebel fighters, as rebels inside the capital took to the streets and clashed with heavily armed government forces.
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Associated Press
Libyan rebel fighters are seen at a checkpoint outside Zawiya, Libya, on Saturday.
After six months of war, it appeared that the climactic final battle for control of the capital of two million residents, had at last begun. After over four decades in power, Col. Moammar Gadhafi's rule teetered on the brink of collapse just 12 days shy of the 42nd anniversary of his coming to power on September 1, 1969.
As reports poured in to rebel-held areas of Libya of Tripoli's budding uprising, Libyans poured into the streets to celebrate. In Zawiya, the coastal city 30 miles west of Tripoli which rebels cleared of Mr. Gadhafi's fighters on Friday night, jubilant residents paraded through the streets, honking car horns, screeching tires, and firing celebratory gunfire into the air.
In Benghazi, the rebels' de facto capital in eastern Libya and the city where the uprising against Col. Gadhafi's rule first began on Feb. 17, thousands of people poured into the seaside courthouse square.
Residents tracked Tripoli's developments minute-by-minute by phone calls from friends in the capital, and by news reports on Al Jazeera and the rebel controlled news network Libya Ahrar. Cellular phone networks in Libya were overloaded by the traffic.
"This is the happiest moment of my life, for the first time I feel free free free," 17-year-old Mohammed al-Gummati said as he celebrated in the streets of Zawiya.
In the streets, residents jumped up and down, chanting, "Ole ole ole ole, Gadhafi's going away."
Libya's rebels celebrate new advances and claim another high-profile defection from the pro-Gadhafi camp. Video courtesy of Reuters.
Residents inside the capital reached by telephone reported fierce fighting inside a number of Tripoli neighborhoods, apparently initiated by rebel fighters who had been laying low inside the capital waiting for the right moment to rise up. Residents reported widespread gunfire and frequent explosions.
Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told state television on Saturday night that "all of Tripoli is safe and stable."
The uprising in Tripoli comes on the heels of dramatic rebel gains to the east, west, and south of Tripoli, which has left the capital cutoff from the outside world. Earlier in the day on Saturday, rebels paraded through the streets of Zawiya, the strategic coastal city 30 miles west of Tripoli, proclaiming the city free of loyalist forces after a week of tough urban battle.
The Tripoli uprising also appeared to coincide with reports on the rebel controlled satellite station that Col. Gadhafi had fled the country. Those reports could not be confirmed. Saturday's uprising in Tripoli also fell on the anniversary of the Muslim prophet Mohammed's conquering of Mecca in the seventh century.
There were conflicting reports about how the initial battles in the capital were playing out. Some reports suggested the uprising appeared to be spreading to additional Tripoli neighborhoods. One Zawiya resident said friends had told him that rebel flags flew from buildings throughout the neighborhoods of Tajoura and Souq al-Jomaa. The Al Jazeera news network reported that rebels were battling for control of a military airport in the city.
But other residents in Zawiya said their friends and family members in the capital were relaying discouraging reports that lightly armed and unarmed rebel fighters had been met in the streets by Col. Gadhafi's fighters using heavy caliber weapons and were taking a pounding.
"Gadhafi's soldiers are using heavy weapons and killing the people who came out into the streets," a Zawiya resident said after speaking with several friends in Tripoli. "They don't have heavy weapons so they can't sustain their fight for a long time."
Rebels in Zawiya said they had received urgent calls for help. Units of rebel fighters who fled Tripoli earlier in the uprising have been training for weeks to mobilize against the capital. Zawiya's rebels stand closest to Tripoli, less than 30 miles from the city, but they must battle through Mr. Gadhafi's forces to get there.
After being driven out of Zawiya, those forces now stand about 10 kilometers east of Zawiya, according to rebel fighters.
As fighting erupted in the capital, there were more signs that the regime appeared to be unraveling. Libya's top oil official, Omran Abukraa, arrived in Tunisia after a trip to Italy, declining to return to Tripoli in an apparent defection, Reuters reported.
On Friday night, a former senior aide to Col. Gadhafi, Abdel Salam Jalloud, defected to the Western Mountains. On Monday, Col. Gadhafi's minister of interior defected.
Write to Charles Levinson at charles.levinson@wsj.com
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