Libya Update

They immediately hoisted their flag to mark the symbolic end to the strongman s 42-year rule. As rebel leaders proclaimed they had "won the battle" in Tripoli, fighters celebrated by firing automatic weapons into the air, chanting "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest), and raiding the armoury for ammunition, pistols and rifles. The defenders had fled, and there was no immediate word on the whereabouts of Gaddafi or his family after the insurgents late afternoon breached the defences as part of a massive assault that began in the morning. "We have won the battle," Abdel Hakim Belhaj, the insurgents Tripoli commander told Al-Jazeera television from inside the complex. "The military battle is over now," he said. Rebels however claimed that Gaddafi has fled the country contrary to earlier reports that cited Gaddafi as vowing that he will not quit. In the rebels eastern bastion of Benghazi, where residents poured onto the streets in celebration, commander Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani said there had been no trace of Gaddafi or his family. "Bab al-Azizya is fully under our control now. Colonel Gaddafi and his sons were not there; there is nobody," Bani said. "No one knows where they are." Footage from satellite channels showed a young rebel climbing atop a huge sculpture of a fist gripping an airplane -- a symbol of a US attack on the compound in 1986 -- trying to break off a piece. Another rebel proudly brandished a seized rifle with a gold-plated barrel and stock saying "Gaddafi people killed us with it."