Libyan rebels attack Tripoli

Libyan rebel commanders hailed the start of an attack on Muammar Gaddadi’s final stronghold, Tripoli.

 Residents reported fighting in neighbourhoods in the north, east and south-west of the city and said rebels were in the streets, although the Libyan government insisted the capital was “safe and stable,” The Telegraph has recently reported.

 Jumma Ibrahim, a rebel spokesman, said: “The revolution from inside Tripoli has officially started in many parts ... of Tripoli, and is expected to spread to all of Tripoli.”

But in a typically defiant audio message broadcast on state television early on Sunday, Colonel Gaddafi claimed to have repelled the rebels in the city.

 "Those rats ... were attacked by the masses tonight and we eliminated them," he said, adding that rebel activity in Tripoli had amounted to little more than "fireworks". He called on his supporters to mass against the rebels and win back the towns that had fallen to them.