@LandDestroyerTony Cartalucci
Qaddafi troops simply withdrew from the compound -guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug… #Libya #Feb17 #tripoli contested 4 days after MSM calls "victory"
When I got to the compound, there was chaos and confusion. Lots of people were running in, while others were running out. There was a group of rebels at the entrance who were trying to stop the people going in but they didn't have much success.
People were running through, worried about snipers from different directions. From the main entrance, I could see Gaddafi's house, bombed by the Americans in the 1980s and left in its wrecked state as a monument to US aggression. There was also a museum. A dome-shaped building was on fire.
Excited rebels were lugging out plastic crates full of guns. But although the scene was one of jubilation it was tempered by the terror of being shot. Just as I was leaving, I saw a man with a gunshot wound to his calf. Half of the muscle was missing.
Nearby, there was an ambulance crew quietly patching up minor injuries and a couple of quite serious ones.
It didn't feel like a monumental moment; it was too chaotic and uncertain for that. People were worried about a counter-offensive.
There just wasn't a feeling that it was totally secure. Nobody was holding positions in the compound, most people were on foot and there was confusion everywhere. There was a feeling on the part of some there that Gaddafi's forces may simply have withdrawn.
They certainly hadn't fought to the last man. There weren't the bodies of Gaddafi supporters lying around.
At one point, I thought a rocket was fired in and everyone ran. The rebels started firing weapons at a block of flats 800 metres away, on the right hand side, where they thought they were taking fire. By the time I left, there was so much celebration going on it was difficult to work out was going on.
