Tripoli: “Operation Mermaid Dawn”

Libya News: The rebels take control of Tripoli.

The battles are around Tripoli (Libya) and it seems that “Operation Mermaid Dawn” has begun, according to a military commander in Benghazi, colonel Fadlallah Haroun.

The time of freedom arrived with the rebels closing to Tripoli

“The fighters in Tripoli are rising up in two places at the moment – some are in the Tajoura neighbourhood and the other is near the Matiga (international) airport,” he told Al-Jazeera.

Tajoura is the Tripoli neighborhood most openly opposed to Gaddafi. Heavy fights has been in Souq al-Jomaa, Fashloum and Tajoura, a rebel representative told the AP.

While Tripoli seems to be besieged, Abdessalam Jalloud, former prime minister, left for Italy via Tunisia on Saturday.

The government official told AFP “Jalloud left Djerba airport for Italy at dawn on a Maltese plane with his family”.

“We are verifying this information,” said Maurizio Massari from the Italian Foreign Ministry.

Early on Sunday morning Muammar al Gaddafi congratulated his men for repelling an attack upon Tripoli.

Live audio on state television, Gaddafi expressed congratulation to his supporters for repelling a rebels attack. He called the rebels “rats”.

Moammar Gadhafi said Nicolas Sarkozy wants to steal the country’s oil and the rebels were “bent on the destruction of the Libyan people”.

Gaddafi impeled his supporters to “march by the millions” and put an end to a rebellion, that he called a “masquerade”.

Meanwhile, the rebels said the Gaddafi’s regime is heading to an end.

“The zero hour has started. The rebels in Tripoli have risen up,” said Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, vice-chairman of the National Transitional Council (NTC), in the eastern city of Benghazi.

On Sunday an official in the rebel NTC said that operations in Tripoli were co-ordinated between opponents of Gaddafi in the city and the rebels in the east.

“There is co-ordination with the rebels in Tripoli. This was a pre-set plan. They’ve been preparing for a while. There’s co-ordination with the rebels approaching from the east, west and south,” he said.

Abdel Hafiz Ghoga said NATO warplanes were sending air strikes to distract Gaddafi’s forces.