Hundreds of triumphant Libyan rebels flooded into the last bastion of Muammar Gadafy's power today, looting in his Tripoli compound for weapons and trophies, and shouting "Gadafy is finished".
Rebels in pickup trucks broke into the heavily fortified base -off limits to ordinary people throughout Col Gadafy's 42-year rule - through one of the main gates, shooting in the air in jubilation as they searched for the elusive leader.
Col Gadafy's white Bedouin tent where he used to receive visiting foreign dignitaries was set on fire, and the smoke from the blaze wafted through a children's playground nearby. The compound's walls had been damaged in the battle.
A golden statue of Col Gadafy was destroyed and decapitated. A group of rebels stamped on the head and kicked it around, laughing and shouting anti-Gadafy insults.
One bearded rebel, sporting a thick gold chain around his drab olive-green t-shirt and Col Gadafyi's flamboyant military peaked hat, told Sky News he had snatched his trophy from Col Gadafy's bedroom.
He said: "A lot of friends of mine died on the front. They should have been here with me today."
Col Gadafy's trademark golf cart, in which the Libyan leader appeared frequently at home and on foreign visits, was also seized by rebels and paraded around the compound.
Some rebels tore Gadafy posters up. Others tried to pull down a giant golden statue of a hand crushing a US warplane, a symbol of Col Gadafy's contempt for the West. One rebel clambered to the top of it.
"Libya is free! Gadafy is finished. We are all free now," they yelled from the back of their vehicles which were mounted with heavy weapons.
Others jumped off their cars, shouting "God is greatest", waving rebel flags and firing guns in celebration.
Black plumes of smoke swirled above the 6 sq-km (2.3 sq mile) complex, and fighting appeared to be still under way deep inside the base where snipers had fired at the advancing rebels.
"Can you believe this? This is the end of 42 years of tyranny!" one rebel shouted.
"We don't want anyone like Gadafy. We want justice," another rebel said on Sky.
A rebel official told Al Jazeera that the rebels would move their headquarters from Benghazi to Tripoli in two days.
As rebels rampaged through the vast compound, some fired angry shots at a building ruined in a 1986 air strike ordered by then US president Ronald Reagan, an iconic site for Gadafy loyalists.
Behind its imposing, olive green walls, scenes of chaos filled the once orderly, neatly kept compound, described in the past as Col Gadafy's Pentagon.
Heavy gunfire and explosions echoed around the base, its palm tree studded lawns now turned into patches of smoldering land. Many buildings were damaged.
Col Gadafy used to gather supporters in the compound throughout the conflict as part of his vast propaganda machine. A television camera that was used to broadcast these images daily to the Libyan people was now lying broken on the ground.
A group of rebels looted an armoury in part of the compound, seizing new sniper rifles in plastic cases, a witness said.
But their primary target was Col Gadafy, assumed to be hiding with his sons somewhere inside the vast base which is believed to sit atop a network of tunnels and bunkers.
"He [Gadafy] is underground," one fighter told Sky News. "We are looking you."
Pro-Gadafy forces initially tried to defend the Bab al-Aziziya compound but their resistance later ended, witnesses said. Nato jets flew in support of the rebels.
Rebels also took control of the oil port of Ras Lanuf as Col Gadafy's forces retreated to the west toward the leader's home town of Sirte, a rebel spokesman said.
"We have taken Ras Lanuf. They just ran until the Red Valley," rebel spokesman Mohammad Zawawi said.
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon told the head of Libya's rebel council that opposition fighters must ensure that diplomatic premises in Tripoli and elsewhere are protected.
"The secretary-general stressed the need for national unity, reconciliation and inclusiveness as well as the protection of diplomatic premises," UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters.
The attack came hours after Col Gadafy's son, and presumed heir Saif al-Islam, had earlier told a crowd that his father was well and still in Tripoli.
Heavy smoke drifted across the city centre and a reporter at a government-controlled hotel near the sprawling compound heard heavy gunfire and explosions. Nato declined comment on whether it had struck Bab al-Aziziya.
A Nato spokesman said the alliance does not know where Col Gadafy and does not view him as a target, but it will continue bombing his command facilities if needed.
A spokesman for the rebel National Transitional Council said Col Gadafy was either in or near to Tripoli.
"We don't think that he has left the country. We believe he is still inside Libya. We believe that he is either in Tripoli or close to Tripoli," 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."
The Pentagon said today rebels appeared to be in control of most of Tripoli, adding that it was sticking to its assessment that Col Gadafy had not left the country.
Tripoli residents, many of whom had taken to the streets on Sunday to celebrate the end of Col Gadafy's 42-year rule, stayed indoors as the irregular rebel armies that swept the capital ran into resistance from sharpshooters, tanks and other heavy weaponry.
Western powers, backing the disparate opposition to Col Gadafy, moved ahead with plans to support a new administration with which they hope to exploit Libya's oil wealth. They renewed calls for the 69-year-old autocrat to surrender.
But his London-educated son sounded defiant when, to the surprise of journalists who had been informed by rebel officials that Saif al-Islam was in their custody, he appeared in the early hours to tell cheering supporters: "We broke the back of the rebels. It was a trap ... We are winning.
"Take up arms today," he urged a small group of loyalists. "God willing, we will attack the rats today."
The lack of clear control, however, has revived concerns the sprawling, thinly populated desert state could fall into the kind of instability that has beset Iraq since Saddam Hussein's overthrow. Col Gadafy loyalists and anti-Western Islamists could exploit Libya's ethnic, tribal and political divisions.
Rebel officials say they have a force ready to impose order in the capital, as they have generally done in parts of the country they have taken during the six-month-old civil war. But it is not yet clear how they will handle traditional east-west divisions if they consolidate their grip on the country.
The announcements by rebel sources yesterday of the capture of three of Col Gadafy's six surviving sons did not enhance their credibility when it turned out that two of them appeared to be free. One official said Saif-al Islam had escaped. Al-Jazeera said another son, Mohammed, had also fled from house arrest.
The uncharacteristically efficient rebel advance into the capital, co-ordinated with an uprising inside the city, seemed evidence to some analysts of the military advice and training Western and some Arab powers, including Qatar, have provided.
Many assume special forces are also active on the ground.
Outside powers, including US president Barack Obama, have been at pains to characterise the revolt against Col Gadafy as quite different from the Western assault on Saddam, saying it is a home-grown uprising inspired by other Arab protest movements that overthrew Western-backed autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt.
Aid, some of it in the form of Libyan state funds seized from accounts controlled by Col Gadafy, and advice will be plentiful, foreign governments assured the rebel leadership in Benghazi as it contemplates moving to Tripoli.
But all have ruled out sending in ground troops to bolster a new government which faces considerable difficulties in setting up a new administration given Col Gadafy's four-decade reliance on informal governance and a personality cult.
"We've sought to learn the lessons of the failures of Iraq, which have very much influenced our thinking - trying to make sure we don't make the same mistakes again," said British international development secretary Andrew Mitchell.
Saif al-Islam, who speaks English fluently, was long the face of his father's rapprochement with an energy-hungry Western world after decades of conflict. But during the course of the war he took a hard line against Col Gadafy's enemies.
Hundreds on both sides may have been killed or wounded since Saturday, although reports from rebel and government officials cannot be verified. Medical staff reported difficulties in procuring supplies for those injured.
Mr Obama said yesterday that the conflict was not over yet, and cautioned rebels against exacting revenge: "True justice will not come from reprisals and violence," he said.
The president also made plain that the US would oppose any group within the loose coalition of rebels from imposing its power over other parts of Libyan society.
"Above all we will call for an inclusive transition that leads to a democratic Libya," Mr Obama said.
In an audio broadcast on Sunday before state TV went off the air, Col Gadafy said he would stay in Tripoli "until the end". There has been speculation, however, he might seek refuge in his home region around Sirte, or abroad.
In a sign some of his allies were determined to fight on, Nato said government forces fired three Scud-type missiles from the area of Sirte towards the rebel-held city of Misrata.
Rebels clashed with an army convoy coming from Sirte, killing dozens of Col Gadafy's troops today, Al-Arabiya TV reported. It did not say where the clash took place.
Nato bombed Sirte heavily just before rebels moved into Tripoli.
Reuters