Pat Dollard

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“Rebels appear to have voluntarily pulled back from much of the territory they took almost as soon as they took it.”

Washington Post:

TRIPOLI, Libya — Forces loyal to the fugitive Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi struck back Monday against the rebel fighters who had swept euphorically into the capital the night before, forcing them to retreat from several strategic locations and tempering hopes that the battle for Tripoli was all but over.

The dramatic appearance Monday night of Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam at the Rixos hotel, where the Tripoli-based press corps remains trapped, contradicted the rebels’ assertion the day before that they had captured him and cast into doubt their claim of controlling 80 percent of the capital.

Video footage recorded by the Reuters news agency showed Saif al-Islam being greeted by supporters. “To hell with the ICC,” he said, in reference to the International Criminal Court, which has issued a warrant for his arrest. “We assure the people that things are fine in Libya.”

The BBC and CNN quoted him as telling reporters that government forces had lured the rebels into a trap and “broken the back” of the opposition army and that pro-Gaddafi forces are back in control of the city.

The confusion made the assertion impossible to confirm, but with gunfire and explosions echoing ominously through the streets and Gaddafi’s whereabouts still unknown, it was clear that the capital was far from secure.

Wall Street Journal:

TRIPOLI, Libya—A nervous limbo, punctuated by gunfire, took hold of Libya’s capital Monday, one day after opponents of Col. Moammar Gadhafi rolled triumphantly into the central square here—damping hopes by rebels and their international allies that the strongman’s supporters would melt away.

Machine-gun and antiaircraft rounds could be heard throughout the day in Tripoli, as residents said loyalist gunmen had taken up positions in several neighborhoods. Rebels who attempted to turn an old police academy into their military headquarters quickly came under heavy fire, sending a stream of casualties to a makeshift clinic.

Green Square, where rebel troops had celebrated Sunday after marching largely unopposed into Col. Gadhafi’s stronghold capital, appeared to be a no man’s land. Roads leading to the square were made impassable by what locals said were loyalist snipers.

Amid the uncertainty, one of Col. Gadhafi’s sons, thought to have been captured by the rebels a day earlier, showed up at a Tripoli hotel and invited foreign journalists on a tour of the city, according to news reports.

Libya’s rebel government-in-waiting declared itself the country’s ruling power, and announced the capture of several members of Col. Gadhafi’s family, but by Tuesday morning it remained unclear how many were still in custody.

Seif el-Islam Gadhafi, seen as a possible successor to Col. Gadhafi, had been captured and was in rebel hands, said Dia Alhutmany, a spokesman for the rebel-aligned Libyan Mission to the United Nations in New York.

Early Tuesday, however, Seif el-Islam unexpectedly showed up at a hotel in Tripoli where foreign journalists stay, the Associated Press and cable news stations reported. He then invited several reporters to join him on a drive through the city with his convoy, telling them: “We are going to hit the hottest spots in Tripoli,” AP reported.

The convoy visited armed Gadhafi supporters at several locations in the capital and ended outside Col. Gadhafi’s Bab al-Aziziya compound where dozens of loyalists had gathered, AP reported.

Mr. Alhutmany said another son, Mohammed, had been captured, but may have escaped rebel custody. He wasn’t able to confirm reports of the capture of a third son, Saadi, and added that another son, Mutassim, may have escaped to the city of Sabha in the south.

Col. Gadhafi’s whereabouts, meanwhile, remained unknown.

“The only victory will be when Gadhafi is captured,” Mustafa Abdul Jalil, head of the Libyan rebels’ National Transitional Council, told reporters in Benghazi.

“This is a shrewd man, unpredictable,” added Ali Suleiman Aujali, Libya’s former ambassador to the U.S.

French leader Nicolas Sarkozy, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and others called on Col. Gadhafi’s forces to cease violence immediately.

Advancing rebels said they haven’t attempted to enter or assert authority in several neighborhoods, including the historically pro-Gadhafi areas of Abu Salim and Hadba. Some of the fighters admitted they had little visibility on some areas of the city. “It’s pretty much a black spot right now,” said Mohamed Abu Sbeaa, a 21-year-old rebel fighter.

But on Monday, Fighting flared around Col. Gadhafi’s Bab al-Azzizziya compound in central Tripoli, where loyalist tanks emerged to attack rebels trying to storm the compound, according to rebels in the city.

Rebels appear to have voluntarily pulled back from much of the territory they took almost as soon as they took it. The invading forces appeared to only control a slice of land leading from the western edge to near the city center. Rebels from inside the capital claimed to control a handful of other neighborhoods.

But with roads often insecure and communication poor between various rebel units and neighborhood groups, it was difficult to know with certainty the status of many neighborhoods.

Rebels’ fragile hold over the city was evident as columns of rebel fighters made their way back into the city again Monday morning.

One column advanced cautiously from the west along the city’s coast road, pausing every few blocks amid reports of snipers and occasional bursts of gunfire targeting the convoy. It was impossible to confirm whether the sniper fears were justified, though the reluctance of residents and rebels to venture into many parts of the city highlighted Tripoli’s uncertain status.

To the advancing rebels, every local appeared to be a potential threat, raising the possibility of future tensions between rebel forces and locals. A resident of an apartment block along the seaside thoroughfare who poked his head out onto a balcony was greeted by angry shouts from rebel fighters, warning him to go back inside lest he be mistaken for a sniper.

A car driving toward the rebel column was stopped amid yells and wagging rebel gun barrels. The driver said he had friends in Misrata, the rebel-dominated city east of Tripoli, and shouted a string of rebel slogans. The fighters waved him on.

Along a side street, a dead soldier lay in the gutter at the end of a 200-yard trail of bloody footprints. Rebels identified him, by his olive-colored uniform, as a Gadhafi loyalist.

Advancing rebels took over the old police academy shortly after noon, proclaiming it the headquarters of the Tripoli Division of five rebel brigades, which is leading efforts to secure the city. Within 90 minutes, the base came under attack.

Pro-Gadhafi snipers fired from nearby buildings as loyalist fighters pounded the front gate with sustained heavy-caliber machine gun fire, in a hit-and-run strike that wounded scores of rebels.

Because pro-Gadhafi agents have seized wounded rebels from their hospital beds, rebels are treated in clandestine, ill-equipped clinics staffed by medical students.