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TRIPOLI, Libya — Rebel forces gained "full control" over Moammar Gadhafi's fortified Bab al-Aziziya compound in Libya's capital Tuesday, NBC News reported.
The compound, which was heavily damaged by NATO airstrikes, had emerged as one of the last centers of government resistance.
"Strategically, this means that Tripoli has fallen," NBC's Richard Engel said from inside the compound. Several rebels, in a show of contempt for the man who ruled their vast North African nation for more than 40 years, placed a head seized from a statue under their feet and kicked it. One happily lifted it above his head while his comrades danced and yelled joyfully around him.
Others tore large pictures of Gadhafi and climbed over a symbolic statue of a hand gripping a U.S. fighter jet.
Fighters poured into the area by the hundreds, carting off boxes of ammunition and firing weapons in the air in celebration.
There was heavy fighting before the rebels broke through the green gates of the compound and shooting broke out from other parts of the large, sprawling complex. The body of a slain Gadhafi fighter with a gaping head wound was sprawled on the floor of one of two tents that had been used for pro-regime protests. The other tent was partially on fire.
Smoky fires shrouded landscaped palms and multistory buildings of what the rebels have called Gadhafi's last hideout. Many buildings were looted, and rebel fighters walked around with high quality weapons, including advanced machine guns and, in one case, a gold-plated pistol, The New York Times reported
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44237904/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/#.TlPraqjSwqY
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