AS REBELS claimed to have Col Gadafy cornered in Tripoli, food, water and power shortages continued to bite. The price of bottled water has rocketed and long queues formed at the few bakeries open in the city. Some residents blamed Col Gadafy and his loyalists, accusing them of deliberately cutting off the water supply.
The rebels continued to apprehend those they accused of being foreign mercenaries in the pay of Col Gadafy. At a rebel base in central Tripoli late on Thursday night, The Irish Times witnessed rebel fighters bring two women, their hands bound behind their backs, to the compound.
The rebels said the pair were foreign mercenaries who had been found shooting on a nearby street.
Fears of Gadafy loyalist snipers are ever present throughout the city. A French reporter narrowly escaped injury when a bullet fired by a sniper missed him by inches on the terrace of a hotel used by journalists. Exchanges of anti-aircraft fire and gunfire could be heard.