TRIPOLI, Libya — Libyan rebels waved flags and shot into the air in celebration Monday morning after driving into Tripoli's vast Green Square, taking control of the symbolic heart of the 42-year regime of Col. Moammar Gadhafi.
Hundreds of people remained in the streets of the capital Monday morning. Many of them were armed, and they fired repeatedly at propaganda posters of Gadhafi.
President Barack Obama said in a statement late Sunday from vacation in Martha's Vineyard, Mass., that "Tripoli is slipping from the grasp of a tyrant" and that Gadhafi's regime "is showing signs of collapsing."
"The future of Libya is now in the hands of the Libyan people," the president said.
Gadhafi delivered a series of defiant audio messages on state television Sunday evening. He acknowledged that the opposition forces were moving into Tripoli and warned that the city would be turned into another Baghdad.
"The traitors are paving the way for the occupation forces to be deployed in Tripoli," he said, calling on his supporters to march in the streets of the capital and "purify it" from "the rats."
Al-Jazeera's Arabic-language service reported that officers who had defected to the rebels found Gadhafi overnight near Tajoraa Hospital east of Tripoli. Gadhafi resisted, and two of the officers who tried to arrest him were killed, said the news agency, quoting a military source.
NBC News was not able to independently confirm the account, and Gadhafi's whereabouts were unclear Monday morning. But other top officials were reported to be fleeing, led by Prime Minister Al Baghdadi AlMahmoudi, who was spotted Monday morning in Jaraba, Tunisia, Al-Jazeera reported.
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