Libya Endgame? Reports of Ghdaffi's Death Circulate As Rebles Encircle Tripoli

Rebels seeking to oust Libyan leader Mummar Ghdaffi have advanced to the outskirts of the capitol city of Tripoli while managing to cut off fuel and supplies not even a week after seizing the Western coastal city of Zawiyah.

Aided by NATO airstrikes and ferrying in weapons and supplies by tugboat, rebels surrounded the capital and began an assault on Ghdaffi's remaining stronghold on Sunday. Amid reports circulating that he had been killed, the defiant Libyan leader made a brief audio statement in state-run TV claiming that the rebel 'rats and vermin' in Tripoli 'have been eliminated'.

Rebel forces announced that they had captured one of Ghdaffi's sons, Seif al Islam Ghdaffi, in a raid that thrust into downtown Tripoli. The rebels had also been arming themselves after forces loyal to Ghdaffi abandoned checkpoints and arms depots in the suburbs around the city.

The rebel assault on the capital began on Saturday night at the Ben Nabi mosque near the heart of the city. As worshippers inside the mosque barricaded themselves and used the loudspeaker system to chant antigovernment slogans, loyalist troops converged and opened fire on the building. Rebels and local residents then moved in and attacked the Ghdaffi loyalists with machine guns and molotov cocktails, driving them back. From there, the rebels moved into Green Square and in a largely symbolic maneuver, raised the pre-Ghdaffi royal flag of Libya (below) that the rebels have adopted during the months-long uprising.

Green Square is where Ghdaffi held military parades and state-sponsored rallies throughout his rule.

From there, the rebels reportedly withdrew- but not before sending text messages and using mosque loudspeakers to call for a general uprising against the Ghdaffi regime. One rebel spokesman said that a small number of fighters and several caches of arms on the roads into and out of Tripoli were smuggled into the city in the days and weeks before the uprising.

Both the rebels and many international observes note that the rebel encirlcement of Libya represents an unprecedented challenge to Ghdaffi's 41 year rule, and that the collapse of his regime is only a matter of days if not hours.