TRIPOLI: Euphoric Libyan rebels enterd the capital Tripoli Sunday and moved close to the center with little resistance as Moammar Gadhafi’s defenders melted away. The opposition’s leaders said Gadhafi’s son and one-time heir apparent, Seif al-Islam, had been arrested.

Associated Press reporters with the rebels said they met little resistance as they moved from the western outskirts into the capital in a dramatic turning of the tides in the six-month-old Libyan civil war.
Live footage from SkyNews early Monday also showed rebels entering Green Square, firing in the air amid celebrations by residents tearing down pictures of Gadhafi. Green Square has been the site of night rallies by Gadhafi supporters throughout the uprising.

The chairman of the rebel National Transitional Council told Al-Jazeera television from Benghazi in eastern Libya he had “information that Seif al-Islam has been captured.”
“He is being kept in a secure place under close guard until he is handed over to the judiciary,” Mustafa Abdel Jalil said, while Gadhafi’s eldest son, Mohammad, has surrendered to Libyan rebel forces, rebel National Transitional Council Coordinator Adel Dabbechi told Reuters Sunday.

Britain said the end was near for Gadhafi. “It is clear from the scenes we are witnessing in Tripoli that the end is near for Gadhafi,” said a statement from Prime Minister David Cameron’s Downing Street office. “He has committed appalling crimes against the people of Libya and he must go now to avoid any further suffering for his own people.”
As Gadhafi’s regime appeared to be rapidly crumbling, he appealed for his people to “save Tripoli” from a rebel offensive, in an audio message played on state television Sunday.
“It is the obligation of all Libyans. It is a question of life or death,” he said. Gadhafi made a similar appeal earlier in the evening on state television, as rebels streamed into the capital.

Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said that 1,300 people had been killed in the rebel assault on the capital Sunday, describing the fighting as a “real tragedy.”
“In 24 hours, 1,300 people have been killed in Tripoli,” Ibrahim told a news conference in Tripoli, updating an earlier toll given by a government official. Ibrahim insisted Libya’s regime “is still strong and thousands of volunteers and soldiers are ready to fight.”

However, Al-Arabiya television aired images of Libyans celebrating in central Tripoli and tearing down Gaddafi posters, the first images from the city since rebels entered from the west earlier in the day.
Earlier in the day, the rebels overran a major military base defending the capital, carted away truckloads of weapons and raced to Tripoli with virtually no resistance.

Along the way, they freed several hundred prisoners from a regime lockup. The fighters and the prisoners – many looking weak and dazed and showing scars and bruises from beatings – embraced and wept with joy.
Thousands of jubilant civilians rushed out of their homes to cheer the long convoys of pickup trucks packed with rebel fighters shooting in the air. Some were hoarse, shouting: “We are coming for you, frizz-head,” a mocking nickname for Gadhafi. In villages along the way that fell to the rebels one after another, mosque loudspeakers blared “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great.”

Once they reached Tripoli, the rebels took control of one neighborhood, Ghot Shaal, on the western edge of the city. They set up checkpoints as rebel trucks rolled into Tripoli. A convoy of more than 10 trucks entered Ghot Shaal.
The rebels moved on to the neighborhood of Girgash, about 2 kilometers from Green Square. They said they came under fire from a sniper on a rooftop in the neighborhood.
Sidiq al-Kibir, the rebel leadership council’s representative for the capital Tripoli, confirmed the arrest of Seif al-Islam to the Associated Press.

Inside Tripoli, widespread clashes erupted for a second day between rebel “sleeper cells” and Gadhafi loyalists. Rebel fighters who spoke to relatives in Tripoli by phone said hundreds rushed into the streets in anti-regime protests in several neighborhoods.

Libyan state television aired an angry audio message from Gadhafi earlier Sunday, urging families in Tripoli to arm themselves and fight for the city. “The time is now to fight for your politics, your oil, your land,” he said. “I am with you in Tripoli – together until the ends of the earth,” Gadhafi shouted.

The day’s first breakthrough came when hundreds of rebels fought their way into a major symbol of the Gadhafi regime – the base of the elite 32nd Brigade commanded by Gadhafi’s son, Khamis.
Fighters said they met with little resistance.
Hundreds of rebels cheered wildly and danced as they took over the compound filled with eucalyptus trees, raising their tricolor from the front gate and tearing down a large billboard of Gadhafi.

Inside, they cracked open wooden crates labeled “Libyan Armed Forces” and loaded their trucks with huge quantities of munitions. One of the rebels carried off a tube of grenades, while another carted off two mortars.
“This is the wealth of the Libyan people that he was using against us,” said Ahmad al-Ajdal, 27, pointing to his haul. “Now we will use it against him and any other dictator who goes against the Libyan people.”

One group started up a tank, drove it out of the gate, crushing the median of the main highway and driving off toward Tripoli. Rebels celebrated the capture with deafening amounts of celebratory gunfire, filling the air with smoke.

Across the street, rebels raided a huge warehouse, making off with hundreds of crates of rockets, artillery shells and large-caliber ammunition. The warehouse had once been used to store packaged foods, and in the back, cans of beans were still stacked toward the ceiling.

From the military base, about 26 kilometers west of Tripoli, the convoy pushed on toward the capital.
Mahmoud al-Ghwei, 20 and unarmed, said he had just came along with a friend for the ride. “It’s a great feeling. For all these years, we wanted freedom and Gadhafi kept it from us. Now we’re going to get rid of Gadhafi and get our freedom,” he said.