Welcome to Middle East Live.
It was reports of the arrest of Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam on Sunday night, confirmed by the international criminal court, which illustrated how close to collapse the Libyan regime had come. Saif's defiant reappearance overnight suggests that the battle for Tripoli is far from over.
"We are going to win" he said and asked about his indictment for war crimes he said: "Screw the criminal court."
Was Saif released as part of some kind of deal or did he escape? Waheed Burshan, a member of the National Transitional Council, told al-Jazeera: "We had confirmation Saif al-Islam was arrested, but we have no idea how he escaped."
Here are the other main developments:
Libya
• Opposition figure Ibrahim Sahad condemned the handling of another of Gaddafi's sons, Mohammad, who also escaped on Monday. In an interview with the Australian broadcaster ABC, Sahad said:
The way they dealt with Mohammed last night was not adequate... they wanted to show him the civilisation of this revolution. So they left him at home and they put some guards around the house, and the information now that he escaped. I mean this should not be done. It should be everybody from the Gaddafi family should be brought under arrest.
• The head of the opposition National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, cautioned that "the real moment of victory is when Gaddafi is captured". The Libyan leader's whereabouts are still unknown, but US officials said they believed he was still in Libya.
• Nato jets bombed Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli early on Tuesday, according to reports. Earlier, Nato said pro-Gaddafi forces fired at least three Scud missiles from the city of Sirte, Gaddafi's birthplace.
• Libyan state TV is off the air after its headquarters was stormed by rebels. Rebel forces also claimed to have detained Hala Misrati, the Libyan state TV prestenter who famously vowed to die a martyr for Gaddafi while waving a gun on air on Sunday.
• Some international journalists remain trapped in Tripoli's five-star Rixos hotel, in a part of the city controlled by Gaddafi's forces. The hotel is subject to frequent power cuts. One of those reporters, the BBC's Matthew Price, tweets:
#Rixos Journos have little Internet access and trying to conserve power/sat phones etc. But all ok, feel safer this am, no power though.
• The New York Times provides a detailed account of the rebel offensive on Tripoli which was combined with an uprising of residents.
They were aided by steady supplies of weapons, fuel, medicine and food from British, French and Qatari troops and an escalated bombing campaign by Nato jets and American Predator drones. Hundreds of rebels took part in secret military training inside Qatar.
Rebel forces even advanced on Tripoli by boat, arranging a flotilla from the town of Misrata in an operation the rebels called Mermaid Dawn ...
The western offensive by the rebels galvanised opposition fighters in other parts of the country. American and Nato officials described a carefully coordinated three-pronged push on Tripoli, to drive fighters loyal to Colonel Gaddafi on the roads back toward the capital where Nato planes could bomb them.
That push, concentrated to the west of Tripoli, was coordinated with the uprising on Saturday within Tripoli itself.
• The hard part starts now, Martin Chulov, the Guardian's former Baghdad correspondent, warns in an analysis of what the various rebels factions do now.
The lessons of what becomes of a Middle East state that suddenly loses its strongman are recent and raw. More than eight years after Baghdad fell with the same ignominious haste as Tripoli, it remains a basket case of competing agendas, a disengaged political class and citizens left with the reality that the state neither has the capacity or the will to look after them.
• The speed of the collapse of the Gaddafi regime presents serious problems, agues Daniel Serwer from the Johns Hopkins School of Advance International Studies.
said: "Had I been an active diplomat in this I would have worked very hard to try to get a formal turnover of power, because that's what prevents the kind of stay-behind rebellion that we suffered in Iraq."
Syria
• More than 2,200 people have been killed in the Syrian government's crackdown on protests, the UN's human rights commissioner Navi Pillay said as she condemned a shoot-to-kill policy by the regime.
While demonstrations have been largely peaceful, the military and security forces have resorted to an apparent "shoot-to-kill" policy. Snipers on rooftops have targeted protesters, bystanders who were trying to help the wounded, and ambulances ...
As of today, over 2,200 people have been killed since mass protests began in mid-March, with more than 350 people reportedly killed across Syria since the beginning of Ramadan. The military and security forces continue to employ excessive force, including heavy artillery, to quell peaceful demonstrations and regain control over the residents of various cities, particularly in Hama, Homs, Latakia and Deir Ezzor.
The heavy shelling of al-Ramel Palestinian refugee camp in Latakia last week resulted in at least four people killed and the displacement of the 7,500 inhabitants of the camp. Despite assurances from President Assad to the United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon on Wednesday that military operations had finished, I regret to note that at least five people were killed around the country on Thursday and 34 more on Friday by Syrian military and security forces.
• The Syrian government's attempts to whitewash evidence of a brutal crackdown on the country's five-month uprising appeared to backfire on Monday after a visiting UN humanitarian delegation was met by protesters waving SOS signs. Hundreds of demonstrators in Homs surrounded the UN car in the central New Clock square, shouting for the overthrow of the regime.
"I've got a front row stall seat on the battle," Luke Harding reports above the crump of mortar shells in Tripoli.
To my left is the old city which is in rebel hands - the rebels have got the harbour, the corniche, they've got Green Square. But to my right, where the fighting is going on, there are a series of tall government buildings where the rebels have taken up positions and they are now duking it out with Gaddafi forces in Bab al-Azizya, which is Gaddafi's compound and the area where the Rixos hotel is situated. There is just a big battle going on [sound of shelling] -- That's a big mortar. It is clear that the city is not in rebel hands, nor is it entirely in government hands. What we are looking at now is a Beirut-style situation.
The west of city - the opposition have taken control of that - and the mood there is much calmer. But here in the heart of Tripoli there is this just this almighty fight.
On the reappearance of Saif al-Islam, Luke said the it provided a psychological boost to loyalist fighters. But he added: "There isn't anywhere for them to go from here. I can't really see them recapturing the city. What I can envisage is them hanging on for some time; they have got a lot of ammunition, they've been expecting this, they've got heavy weaponry. Plus they've got all these captive journalists [in the Rixos hotel] ..."
At that point Luke had to cut the call short and take cover.
_ >
After being interrupted by shelling Luke Harding in Tripoli resumes describing the battle for the city.
Since we spoke more than 200 rebel vehicles have made a sedate cavalcade looping round the harbour and the old city, shooting and crying 'God is great' [heading] for the coastal road out west. It is not clear this is a retreat or a show of force.It is very hard to make sense of what is going on, but the battle is still going on as you can hear. I'm in the Corinthia hotel and it's a bit like being in a reverberating amphitheatre.
_ >
Sky News's Tripoli correspondent Alex Crawford confirms Luke's reports of heavy fighting. Speaking to camera crouched behind a car, she described many casualties arriving at a hospital in central Tripoli. She also said supplies at the hospital were running low.
Sky
correspondent: Many casualties arriving at hospital in central Tripoli following intense fighting
Doctors seriously stretched in Tripoli's only working hospital. Very few staff, piles of rubbish everywhere. 2 young children among wounded
Sound of gunfire and shelling continues. Docs appeal for pressure on both sides to stop attacking the hospital. Horrendous conditions here
A boat charted by the International Organisation for Migrants to rescue 300 people stranded in Tripoli can't dock because of the security situation.
In phone interview IOM spokeswoman Jemini Pandya said: "We had been hoping to carry out the evacuation today. Unfortunately it [the boat] no longer has the security and safety guarantee it was given earlier. So as a result we will not dock the boat because it will not be safe for either our staff or the migrant to carry out the operation. What IOM will do however is keep the boat at sea until conditions improve. It is going to be an extremely difficult operation but we remain committed to carrying out."
_ >
n class="timestamp">10.38am: After chairing a meeting of the government's National Security Council, Nick Clegg said the reappearance of Saif al-Islam was "not the sign of some great comeback" for the regime.
Clegg said it was "only a matter of time" before Gaddafi's regime in Libya was defeated. He said rebels controlled "much but not all of Tripoli".
The deputy prime minister chaired the meeting as David Cameron resumed his holiday in Cornwall.
Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the Nato campaign should continue until full security is established.
Speaking at a press conference in Benghazi he also said frozen Libya assets should be released soon to the opposition, Reuters reports.
The international criminal court now denies that it ever confirmed Saif al-Islam had been arrested.
A live blog by the Libyan activists Feb 17, quoted spokesman Fadi el-Abdallah, telling the BBC:
What we said yesterday is that we received information about the arrest of Saif al-Islam and we were trying to confirm that by contacting the National Transitional Council in Libya, but Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was not under the custody of the ICC.
The media was reporting about his arrest. We tried to contact different persons of the National Transitional Council and there were different opinions and different answers. That's why we said there was no official confirmation about his arrest.
The Guardian's diplomatic editor Julian Borger tweets:
Sky News's Alex Crawford describes "fierce fighting" outside Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound, in this Audioboo clip.
_ >
Repressive regimes don't all stick together - Bahrain has declared its recognition of Libya's National Transitional Council.
The kingdom's state news agency said:
In light of recent developments in Libya, the Kingdom of Bahrain reiterates its recognition of Libya's Transitional National Council (TNC) as the sole legitimate representative of the brotherly Libyan people, wishes Libya to achieve prosperity, progress and stability, development and reconstruction.
My colleague Andrew Sparrow has more on Nick Clegg's comments on Libya, following the National Security Council meeting.
He quotes Andrew Mitchell, the international development secretary, blaming reports of Saif al-Islam's arrest on the "fog of warfare".
Mitchell told BBC Radio 4's Today programme said:
There are quite long lines of communications involved here. I think it is inevitable in this situation with the warfare going on as it is that there will be some confusion.
I think you have to note the quite extraordinary progress that the free Libya forces have made in the last few days. I think that is very indicative of the situation on the ground and although I think it will ebb and flow over the next few days.
n class="timestamp">12.19pm: Here's a
summary of the latest developments:
Libya
• Fighting in Tripoli intensified this morning as the rebls continued their attempt to seize the capital from Muammar Gaddafi's forces. Some of the heaviest clashes were reported to be near the entrance to Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound (see 11.08am). The Guardian's Luke Harding described an "almighty fight" in the centre of the city above the crump of mortar shells (see 9.28am). He likened the battle to the urban warfare in Beirut in the 1980s.
• Confusion surrounds the reappearance last night of Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam. Opposition figures said he had escaped from custody. The international criminal court has denied that it ever confirm he had been arrested (see 10.55am). His reappearance is seen as an embarrassment to the court as it attempts to seek war crimes prosecutions. Britain deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said Saif's reappearance was "not the sign of a comeback".
• The increase in fighting in Tripoli has forced the International Organisation for Migrant to postpone the planned docking of boat which was due to rescue 300 stranded people in Tripoli today (see 10.27am).
• Bahrain has become the latest country to recognise the National Transitional Council as Libya's legitimate authority. Italy announced plans for meeting in Milan between Mahmoud Jibril of Libya's National Transition Council and the Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi (see 11.19am).
Syria
• The UN human rights council has launched a new inquiry into the regime's crackdown on anti-government protests. A UNHRC mission found evidence of a shoot-to-kill policy by the Assad regime and estimated that more than 2,200 had been killed since the protests began (see 8.50am).
There is speculation from al-Jazeera that Nato has bombed close to Muammar Gaddafi's compound.
The US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, made a surprise trip to the town of Jassem in southern Deraa province today, residents said, his second visit since July to an area rocked by pro-democracy demonstrations. "He came by car this morning, although Jassem is swarming with secret police. He got out and spent a good of time walking round. He was careful not to be seen talking with people, apparently not cause them harm," one resident told Reuters.
Here is a gallery of recent pictures of the battle in Tripoli.
The rebel National Transitional Council's representative in London, Guma al-Gamaty, has told my colleague Julian Borger that 2,000 rebel reinforcements broke through government lines Zlitan yesterday and arrived in Tripoli last night. "They should make a difference," he said, adding that the NTC leadership will not make the trip from Benghazi to Tripoli "until the situation has stabilised".
Gamaty also said one rebel fighter was killed yesterday when loyalists stormed the house in the west Tripoli district of Hai Andalus where Mohammad Gaddafi was being held.
Photograph: David McNew/Getty n class="timestamp">12.58pm: John McCain (left), the US Republican senator who ran for president in 2008 and is known in America as a foreign policy expert, has just been speaking to Sky News about the situation in Libya. He said: "Now we have succeeded militarily, now the major challenge of building democracy will come." It took the US over 100 years and a bloody civil war before it decided "what sort of country we wanted to be", McCain said. Asked about the rebel National Transitional Council (known as the NTC or TNC), set to become the next government of Libya, he said:
I have great confidence in them - now we have to have more representatives from the western part of Libya in the TNC … We have to free up their money as quickly as possible so they can start performing the basic functions a government owes its people … There's a lot of good people in the TNC and there's some people that maybe I wouldn't have chosen.
New video of the Tripoli skyline from AP, shows a series of explosions, tracer fire and smoke amid the minarets.
_ >
Mean 
while, reporters for the broadcasters CNN and al-Jazeera, have two intriguing new lines published on Twitter.
Gadhafi regime forces are posing as rebels in Tripoli, rebel contacts told CNN on Tuesday
FLASH: Gaddafi troops retreating towards his hometown of Sirte - Al Jazeera reporter
Hats off to the BBC for this interactive map with video clips of the battle for Tripoli. It gives a good sense of the geography of the capital.
Nato ambassadors are to meet in Brussels at Nato headquarters to discuss the way forward in Libya and look at "options for a possible Nato role" once the conflict is over, Oona Lungescu, a spokeswoman for the alliance has announced at a press conference in the Belgian capital.
Any ongoing Nato role would be governed by three principles, she said:
• The leading role would be taken by the UN and the Libya contact group, with Nato in a supporting role.
• There will be no Nato troops on the ground.
• Any role would have to be "upon request" from the new Libyan government.
She added: "The Libyan people should be spared more bloodshed and suffering," and said: "Nato is committed to our UN security council commitment and mandate to protect civilians."
Nato's Colonel Roland Lavoie is also taking part in the press conference, remotely from Naples. He said Nato's mission continued to be to protect civilians, and enforce the no-fly zone and the arms embargo. That's a "24/7 operation", he said.
The UN mandate remained valid. "We remain vigilant and determined to protect the people of Libya," he said. Nato's mission would continue till Gaddafi's forces have withdrawn to their bases and "full humanitarian access is assured".
In Tripoli, he said, "tension is far from over … The sitaution is very dynamic and complex … Outside Tripoli there is fighting in Sirte and Zawiya." He mentioned the surface-to-surface missiles fired from Sirte to Misrata, saying there were no casualties. Nato destroyed two rocket launchers firing at Brega, he said.
Asked what Nato's strategy was now – was it bombing directly in Tripoli where it thought Gaddafi was? – Lavoire said: "We will take out and strike a target if it posed a threat against the civilian population".
He said he could not estimate the number of pro-Gaddafi soldiers fighting in Tripoli but added:
It's not the number of soldiers that counts; what's important is their ability to fight … We have severely eroded the Gaddafi regime's capabilities to a point where their command-and-control capabilities are severely affected. A lot of senior leaders have defected or been captured … The Gaddafi regime is going down. For us it's more a matter of when.
Asked what Nato's military targets in Tripoli were now, Lavoire said: "There's still weapons out there and still targets if they represent any threat to the civilian population." He gave the example of the rocket launchers firing at Brega: "Those weapons were actually firing when we engaged them." He said the situation in Tripoli was "far more complex, but we have precision munitions".
Lavoire said Nato would not be providing close air support for the rebels in Tripoli.
We are talking here about urban fighting. [This] would not really be practical. We're looking at what is going on on the ground and what we could identify as a threat to the civilian population. It might not be on the frontline; it might be on the outskirts.
He said "we have quite a good understanding of the movement of troops on both sides" but Nato was not coordinating in detail with the anti-Gaddafi forces.
Asked where Gaddafi was, he said:
If you know, let me know. I don't have a clue. I'm not sure it really does matter. The resolution of this situation will be political. Everyone recognises that Gaddafi will not be part of that solution. He's not a key player any more.
Ground troops were "not considered at all - our mandate is very very strict".
Would they kill Gaddafi if they spotted him from the air fleeing? "We do not target individuals. Gaddafi is not a target [for] Nato. If Gaddafi leaves the country … frankly we'll just be happy about that."
Similarly, Lungescu played down the dramatic reappearance of Gaddafi's son Saif, saying:
A brief appearance at the dead of night doesn't indicate to me somebody who is in control of a country or a capital or anything much. It shows that the remnants of the regime are on the run. As we've seen in the Balkans those who are on the run from international justice may be on the run for some time but they can't hide.
Lavoire would not go into "percentages" but said Tripoli was no longer under Gaddafi's control - although "obviously there are still pockets of fighting".
The situation in Tripoli is still very serious and very dangerous. In an urban area snipers, shelling, missile launches could do some serious damage. It could not change the course of history or change the course of this campaign but it could be quite harmful for the population.
He added: "It is quite clear that the regime has lost its control over key strategic areas over the country."
"The battle is as ferocious as ever," Luke Harding reports from Tripoli.
Before we started recording Luke said he was lying on his balcony to take cover from stray bullets as we spoke. He said:
The battle ebbs and flows, but basically it has been a furious day with intense mortar fire, artillery fire, missiles all raining down on Gaddafi's compound. We tried to get out of the hotel about an hour ago but we were flipped back at a rebel check point. The rebel forces fired in the air and told us to clear off. It was not clear whether that was for our safety or they just didn't want us around.
The [mortar] fire is coming from the rebel positions and it is raining down on Bab al-Aziziya. It is not clear to me whether this is a battle or whether they are just pulverising it. It is a Stalingrad-style bombardment at the moment. The mood is extremely tense, but the rebels seem to be largely in control.
Luke said rebels were regularly driving round the city in convoys partly as a response to Saif al-Islam's reappearance in the compound last night.
If [Muammar] Gaddafi is in his bunker then it looks to me like a 1945 Berlin moment. But his whereabouts are a completely mystery.
I haven't really heard any replying fire, but it is so reverberatory here that it is hard to tell.
At that point he had to cut the call short.
_
The UNHCR has published details of a resolution condemning the crackdown in Syria. It called for a new inquiry into human rights abuses after a fact-finding mission found evidence of a shoot-to-kill policy.
The resolution passed by 33 votes to four, with nine abstentions. China and Russia both voted against, arguing the resolution was politicised and unbalanced.
It said:
The resolution strongly condemns the continued grave and systematic human rights violations by the Syrian authorities; welcomes the report of the fact-finding mission of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and expresses profound concern about its findings, including that patterns of human rights violations existed that may amount to crimes against humanity. The resolution calls upon the Syrian authorities to immediately put an end to all human rights violations, to protect their population and fully comply with their obligations and calls for an immediate end to all violence in Syria. It also decides to urgently dispatch an independent international commission of inquiry to investigate all alleged violations of international human rights law since March 2011. The resolution calls for a Syrian led political process and for an inclusive, credible and genuine national dialogue conducted in an environment without fear and intimidation and with the aim of addressing the legitimate aspirations and concerns of the Syrian population.
Nato said it could not confirm reports that its aircraft are involved in the bombardment of Gaddafi's compound. But a spokesman stopped short of an outright denial.
"Nato confirms it has aircraft over Tripoli today," the official said when asked about reports it had launched an air strike against the compound."We haven't heard from our aircraft whether they found it necessary to take action," the official said, adding: "We don't have any indications right now."
British and Nato military commanders are planning what they hope will be a final onslaught on Gaddafi's forces, write Richard Norton-Taylor, Luke Harding in Tripoli, Julian Borger and Christopher Stephen in Misrata.
After being caught by surprise by the speed of the rebel advance on Tripoli, Nato chiefs have ordered what defence officials on Tuesday called a "tactical pause" in the bombing campaign.
But the pause will not last long and the bombing of what strategic targets are left in Tripoli will resume possibly as early as Tuesday night, alliance officials said.
The Guardian has learned that a number of serving British special forces soldiers, as well as ex-SAS troopers, are now advising rebel forces, though their presence is officially denied.
Two thousand rebel reinforcements arrived in Tripoli on Monday night, after breaking through government lines near Zlitan, according to Guma al-Gamaty, the London representative of the rebel National Transitional Council. "They should make a difference," he said.
More rebel fighters arrived by boat, and a separate convoy of rebel jeeps and artillery was heading west from Misrata, according to rebels in the eastern city which had been besieged by government forces for five months.
The sudden advance on the Libyan capital suggests that co-ordination between the rebels and Nato planners is not as effective as has been widely assumed.
Al-Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from a roof top in Tripoli, says he saw Grad missiles being fired from Gaddafi's compound at rebel positions.
He also confirms seeing Nato planes flying overhead but said he did not see Nato airstrikes against the compound. Bays said the rebels may control more of Tripoli than Gaddafi forces, but but "the reality is that there really is no control."
_
My colleague Lizzy Davies has been investigating the surprise reappearance of Saif Gaddafi last night. Saif had been reported captured, but turned up last night at Tripoli's Rixos hotel, stunning journalists and rebels alike.
A captive could have been wrongly identified as Saif, Lizzy suggests, or he may have managed to escape, as his brother Mohammed reportedly did. Waheed Burshan of the National Transitional Council points out the "inexperienced youth" of some his fellow rebels. One rebel, Muftah Ahmad Uthman, told Reuters: "We're trying to figure out how he escaped. You know the capital was captured really quickly. Many of the men in uniform are volunteers, and some of them make mistakes."
Fawas Gerges of the London School of Economics suspected the whole tale of Saif's capture could have been an inept attempt at propaganda by the rebels. Earlier in the war, claims Saif's brother Khamis had been killed turned out not to be true - twice. Larbi Sadiki of the University of Essex agreed it could have been a clumsy attempt at psychological warfare which was now in danger of seriously backfiring.
The rebel National Transitional Council's representative in London, Guma al-Gamaty, details which areas Gaddafi forces have some control.
Gadd
FLASH
Chris Stephen in Misrata reports Libyan rebel units from the city racing by land and sea to the aid of opposition forces in Tripoli.
Last
night boats landed 500 rebel fighters and 40 vehicles loaded with ammunition for opposition forces who are struggling to contain pro-Gaddafi units in the Libyan capital.
Meanwhile a convoy of rebel jeeps and artillery is driving up the coastal highway from Misrata to Tripoli. Rebels say the road is clear but under shell fire from government forces south of the road, and a separate operation is underway by opposition forces to push the frontline south.
South east of Misrata meanwhile rebels are braced for an attack by government troops from bases along more than 200 miles of coastline stretching to the oil town of Brega.
Members of the foreign media corps trapped in the Rixos hotel in Tripoli have reported heavy battles in the area today, reports Harriet Sherwood. At one point the three dozen or so correspondents were forced to take shelter in the basement as snipers fired at the hotel and artillery fire could be heard nearby.
They have also been without power intermittently over the past 24 hours. Matthew Chance of CNN reported on Twitter that the door to his room had been "kicked in" and his belongings rifled through, although nothing was stolen.
The correspondents - including teams from Associated Press, Reuters, BBC, Sky, CNN, Fox and Chinese TV - are unable to leave the hotel because of the fighting. The Rixos is located a few kilometres from Bab al-Aziziya, the Libyan regime's headquarters, where loyalists are holding out against advancing rebel forces.
Rebel forces say they have breached the first gate of Muammar Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli, al-Arabiya TV is reporting.
Andy Carvin of the US's National Public Radio tweets that "even if opposition gets into compound and Gaddafi is there, there's a huge network of tunnels under the city. Could become cat and mouse."
Eighteen people have been killed in the past 24 hours in Syria, according to activists, al-Jazeera reports.
Muammar Gaddafi is alive and well and has no plans to leave Tripoli, according to the Russian chess federation chief Kirsan Ilyumzhinov who says he spoke to the Libyan leader by phone today.
Ilyumzhinov told Reuters that Gaddafi's eldest son Mohammad called him by telephone on Tuesday afternoon.
He gave the phone to his father, who said that he is in Tripoli, he is alive and healthy and is prepared to fight to the end.
Ilyum 
Photograph: Reuters zhinov played a publicity stunt chess match against Gaddafi in June (see picture left).
He is not necessarily the most reliable source. The New York Times says the former goat herder turned politician is an "no slouch himself when it comes to eccentricity".
Mr Ilyumzhinov, who since 1995 has been head of the chess organization, known as FIDE, has a reputation at home, beyond his activity as a world-travelling promoter of chess, as a believer in cosmic aliens, and as a disciple of the view that chess is "a gift from extraterrestrial civilisations.
Amnesty International has put out a statement warning that the fighting in Tripoli is now "seriously endangering civilian lives" and has the potential to create a humanitarian crisis.
Hopes yesterday that the rebels would meet little resistance and the fighting in the capital would be brief seem to have been dashed today.
Malco 
Tripoli at war today. Photograph: Al-Jazeera lm Smart of Amnesty said: "The risk to civilians increases with each day of violence in Tripoli, not just for people caught up in the fighting but also because conditions could become dire if residential areas are affected by the clashes - with food supplies, water and electricity all likely to be hit."
The humanitarian pressure group is also concerned about the fate of foreign workers in Libya. A boat charted by the International Organisation for Migrants to rescue 300 people stranded in Tripoli was not able to dock today because of the security situation.
Reuters is reporting the rebels are in Gaddafi's compound and meeting little resistance, Sky News says.
Here are the latest updates from Reuters:
LIBYAN REBELS ENTER MUAMMAR GADDAFI BAB AL-AZIZIYA COMPOUND - REUTERS REPORTERS AT COMPOUND
GADDAFI FORCES DEFENDED COMPOUND BUT RESISTANCE NOW STOPPED - REUTERS REPORTERS
LIBYAN REBELS SEEN FIRING INTO AIR INSIDE GADDAFI COMPOUND IN CELEBRATION - REUTERS REPORTERS
Sky News points out the compound covers a large area.
View Middle East Live blog locations in a larger map ref="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=209495235774282418880.0004a5a9b058f2989681a&msa=0&ll=32.870144,13.175697&spn=0.030674,0.02708">You can see it on this map.
To recap, Libyan rebels have stormed into Muammar Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli and have been seen firing in the air in celebration, Reuters reporters on the scene said. Pro-Gaddafi forces initially tried to defend the compound but their resistance later ended, the reporters said.
Reuters is now reporting that the US is monitoring Libya's chemical weapons sites, presumably in case Muammar Gaddafi's forces try to employ a "scorched earth" policy, although Sky News is reporting there are few chemical weapons sites left.
A former Croatian president says Muammar Gaddafi claimed last week he was ready to step down and allow democratic reforms in Libya if Nato stopped its air strikes, the Associated Press news agency reports.
Stipe Mesic said in a statement today that the Libyan leader sent him "a personal message" last week saying he was ready to retreat "completely" from political and public life if the military alliance ended the attacks.
Mesic says Gaddafi pledged in the message he would introduce a multiparty system in Libya if Nato airstrikes ceased. Mesic had close links with Gaddafi in the past. He said he informed US, Chinese and Russian ambassadors about Gaddafi's message.
AFP is quoting a rebel colonel as saying the rebels control one of the gates to Muammar Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound. But is Gaddafi in there? Gaddafi's former close aide Abdel-Salam Jalloud, who defected earlier this month, said he thought the Libyan leader was moving around the outskirts of Tripoli, taking shelter in homes, small hotels, and mosques. But senior rebel official Ahmed Jebril said he thought Gaddafi was at the Bab al-Aziziya compound. "He was taken by surprise. He never expected the speed by which fighters have taken over Tripoli or the collapse of his forces. It was too quick. He was not prepared to leave Tripoli."
Global media attention may be focused on the dramatic events unfolding in Libya right now, but that doesn't mean that the rest of the Middle East has fallen quiet. Jack Shenker has an important update on the latest tensions simmering between Egypt and Israel, where the shooting of six Egyptian soldiers by the Israeli military last week has led to a growing war of words - read it here.
The Associated Press is now also reporting that "hundreds of Libyan rebels" have stormed Muammar Gaddafi's main military compound in Tripoli. An Associated Press reporter saw the rebels enter the gates of the Bab al-Aziziya after hours of fierce gun battles.
class="timestamp">4.52pm: Here's a summary of the latest developments:
Libya
• Hundreds of Libyan rebels are storming Muammar Gaddafi's main compound in the centre of Tripoli as the battle for the capital continues (see 4.35pm). There are reports they control one of the gates and have been firing into the air in celebration, an indication perhaps of their confidence. They appear to be meeting little or no resistance there. However, the compound covers a large area. Fighting continues in various areas of the city.
• Gaddafi's whereabouts are still unknown, although he is suspected to be in his compound. Russian chess federation chief Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said he spoke to the Libyan leader today by phone and he said he was still in Libya, and apparently in the company of his son Mohammad, who reportedly escaped from house arrest by the rebels yesterday (see 3.59pm). A Nato spokesman said he had no idea where he was and played down his importance (see 1.53pm).
• Nato officials in Brussels said the alliance's warplanes were flying over Tripoli today, but that there are no "indications" they have dropped any bombs on the city (see 2.49pm). Nato ambassadors are meeting in Brussels at Nato headquarters to discuss the way forward in Libya and look at "options for a possible Nato role" once the conflict is over (see 1.53pm). This will not include Nato troops on the ground and any role would have to be requested by the new Libyan government and led by the UN. The Nato mission will continue until all Gaddafi's forces have withdrawn to their bases and there is full humanitarian access. Reuters is reporting that the US is monitoring Libya's few chemical weapons sites. Amnesty International warned that the continued fighting was posing a serious danger to civilians (see 4.05pm). Rebels from Misrata are rushing to Tripoli to help with the fight (see 3.23pm).
• Confusion surrounds the reappearance last night of Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam. Opposition figures said he had escaped from custody. The international criminal court has denied that it ever confirmed he had been arrested (see 10.55am). His reappearance is seen as an embarrassment to the court as it attempts to seek war crimes prosecutions. Britain's deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said Saif's reappearance was "not the sign of a comeback". The rebels' original report of his capture may have been an inept attempt at propaganda that has now misfired (see 3.19pm).
• Bahrain recognised the National Transitional Council as Libya's legitimate authority. Italy announced plans for meeting in Milan between Mahmoud Jibril of Libya's National Transition Council and the Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi (see 11.19am).
Syria
• Eighteen people have been killed in the past 24 hours in Syria, according to activists (see 3.31pm). The UN human rights council has condemned and launched a new inquiry into the regime's crackdown on anti-government protests (see 2.40pm). A UNHRC mission found evidence of a shoot-to-kill policy by the Assad regime and estimated that more than 2,200 had been killed since the protests began (see 8.50am).
Apologies - technical problems have meant we have had to abandon this blog.