Rebels storm Gaddafi compound

Footage broadcast by Al Jazeera showed dozens of rebel fighters on foot and in pickup trucks moving quickly into the Bab al-Aziziya compound,where smoky fires shrouded the landscaped palms and multistory buildings of what the rebels have described as Gaddafis last hideout. Many of the rebels were searching the buildings room to room but there was no immediate sign that Gaddafi or any of his family members were there.

In what could become a defining image,the footage showed fighters scrambling to topple one of Gaddafis favorite sculptures: a giant fist crushing an US jet fighter. Gaddafi had installed the sculpture in front of a house on the compound that was bombed on orders of President Reagan in 1986,when Libya was considered a pariah state. The wrecked building became Gaddafis backdrop for major speeches,including his defiant challenge to rebels at the start of their uprising six months ago.

It was unclear whether rebels had complete control of the compound. Al Jazeera reported sniper fire inside. CNN showed footage of fighters emerging from one building with what it described as medical files of the Gaddafi family.

A spokesman for the Transitional National Council,the rebel governnment based in the eastern city of Benghazi,where the uprising began,said the rebels assumed that Gaddafi had not left Libya. We believe that he is either in Tripoli or close to Tripoli, the spokesman,Guma el-Gamaty,told BBC television. Sooner or later,he will be found,either alive and arrested and hopefully that is the best outcome we want or if he resists he will be killed.

Russian news agencies reported earlier that Gaddafi had a telephone conversation with the Russian head of the World Chess Federation,Kirsan N. Ilyumzhinov. One of Gaddafis eccentric circle of foreign friends,Ilyumzhinov quoted Gaddafi as saying he was alive and well in Tripoli.

Video footage and eyewitness reports from elsewhere in Tripoli depicted heavy clashes around the international airport,which the rebels had claimed to control.

NATO officials in Brussels and London said the alliances warplanes were flying reconnaissance and other missions over Libya but declined to confirm some news reports that the planes had bombed the fortified Gaddafi compound in Tripoli.

Additionally,Al Arabiya satellite television reported,rebels killed dozens of pro-Gaddafi troops on Tuesday in a convoy from Gaddafis hometown of Surt. There was no independent corroboration of the report. The Pentagon reported late on Monday that its warplanes had shot down a Scud missile fired from Surt.

The BBC reported meanwhile that the Gaddafi-controlled Rixos luxury hotel in central Tripoli,where most foreign reporters are based,had also come under attack on Tuesday. There are still some pockets of resistance, the French foreign minister,Alain Juppé,said in a radio interview in Paris,but he said he believed the fall of Gaddafi is close.

On the diplomatic front,Oman and Bahrain said Tuesday that they formally recognized the rebel authorities,following Egypt,which took the same step Monday,calling the Transitional National Council the new regime.