Reply #21: Don't know about Qaddafi fleeing but ... [View All]

Tunisia's official TAP news agency has said that a former top aide of embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has left the island of Djerba for Italy after apparently defecting.

Abdessalam Jalloud's flight took off from the Djerba airport early on Saturday, the report said, without providing any details.

Rebel spokesman Mahmoud Shammam said that Jalloud had fled to a rebel-held area in the western mountains and was on his way to Europe.

Sustained automatic gunfire and a series of explosions rang out in Tripoli overnight as rebels launched efforts to permanantly free the Libyan capital from Muammar Gaddafi's grasp, according to reports from witnesses and rebels.

Blasts and gunfire rocked the city after sunset on Saturday, and witnesses reported street protests and fighting in the eastern neighbourhoods of Souq al-Jomaa and Tajoura. Beginning at around 9pm local time, residents also took to the streets in the Fashloum, Fournaj, Sabah, Ghoud al-Shayal, Hanshir and Dahra areas, many of them emerging from mosques and chanting "God is great".

Expatriate Libyans speaking to family members in the capital said their relatives described men going out to protest, some with weapons, while children and women were asked to stay home. Meanwhile, NATO aircraft reportedly carried out bombing raids after nightfall.