NALUT, Libya: As the rebels cemented their hold on the capital, Tripoli, and fought fierce pockets of resistance from pro-Gaddafi forces, Libyans were trying to come to grips with the moment some feared would never come.

Amid the joy there was also disbelief, with many almost incapable of believing that the dictator who had ruled their country for 42 years will not fight back.

”It is as if they believe he has supernatural powers,” said one young Libyan, whose mother remains terrified of the possibility of a violent comeback by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. ”The levels of fear and anxiety in people remain very high and for some it is rising,” said the 24-year-old, who asked not to be named.

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Changing of the guard … a rebel poses in one of Gaddafi’s caps. Photo: Reuters

The National Transitional Council said it was in control of 80 per cent of the country, yet that last 20 per cent will be hard fought and NATO said its mission in Libya was far from over.

There were reports of heavy shelling at Zuwarah, 120 kilometres from Tripoli, while Colonel Gaddafi’s home town of Sirte remains a government stronghold.

The winding road into Zawiyah through the Nafusa Mountains was deserted, save for a small convoy of cars and trucks making the journey from Tunisia back into Libya following news that Tripoli had fallen into rebel hands. The occasional abandoned tank and burnt-out truck littered the landscape along that highway.

Rebel fighters told the Herald they were continuing to replenish their stock of weapons and cars, preparing for the next stage of battle.

Colonel Gaddafi’s whereabouts remained a mystery last night as his abandoned compound smouldered in central Tripoli and residents celebrated. Rebels looted the arms depots inside the Bab al-Azizia compound, posed beside the statue of a fist crushing a US jet, and helped themselves to his golden guns, military caps and golf cart.

”We took things because, for 42 years, he took everything from us,” Mustafa Bahrouni, 25, carrying a new assault rifle, explained to reporters.

As newly brave Libyans got their first look at the compound, Colonel Gaddafi was taking to the airwaves, calling on those same residents to cleanse Tripoli of ”rats”. in an audio message rebroadcast by Al-Arabiya, he also said he had walked through the streets of Tripoli.

”I walked incognito, without anyone seeing me, and I saw youths ready to defend their city,” he said, without specifying when he took to the streets.

In the eastern city of Benghazi, where the rebel leadership has been based, the opposition leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said elections would be held in eight months and Colonel Gaddafi would be tried in the country.

”We want a democratic government and a just constitution,” mr Abdel Jalil, chairman of the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) said.

”Above all we do not wish to continue to be isolated in the world as we have been up to now,” he added in comments published in Italy’s La Repubblica daily.

Despite the stunning victory in taking the Gaddafi compound, the battle for Tripoli is not over, with reports of sporadic 

fighting in some neighbourhoods by pro-Gaddafi forces. And elsewhere in the country the fighting continues. Rebel forces in the east have reportedly started pushing west towards Tripoli. The NTC – surprised by how quickly the centre of Tripoli fell – was urging citizens not to settle scores or take revenge.

Mahmoud Jibril, the council’s deputy leader, said: ”We should not besmirch the last page of the revolution. We have to concentrate on rebuilding and repairing our moral and physical wounds.”

In recent days, the NTC has broadcast repeated public messages urging the population to stay calm amid the chaos.

NATO has started crisis talks about a transition to democracy, how to support the rebels and protect civilians, while one commentator warned: ”The country is now a landscape of multiple militia groups.”

How the NTC and its supporters manage the coming weeks will be the difference between Libya making the transition to democracy, or sinking into an Iraq-like mire of sectarian violence and political instability.

Chemical weapons facilities in Libya were being monitored, as NATO expressed concern that up to nine tonnes of mustard gas, as well as rocket-propelled grenades and surface-to-air missiles, could fall into the hands of al-Qaeda or other militants in the aftermath of the fall of Colonel Gaddafi’s regime.

A State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, said the US was working to ensure that ”the governing forces in Libya have full command and control of any [weapons of mass destruction] or any security assets that the state might have had”.

with agencies

Victorious rebels consolidate their grip on Libya’s capital