Where is Gaddafi?
Jonathan Rugman looks at where Libyan leader Gaddafi could be – and what could happen next in the fight for control of Tripoli.
The rebels occupy much of Tripoli but that does not mean that they necessarily control it. After all, they have approached the city from different parts of Libya and do not operate under a unified command. And there are still pockets of Gaddafi resistance.
Fighting flared around the Colonel’s former compound today, despite yesterday’s scenes of jubilation when it was stormed. The rebels are worried about moving into dense residential areas where civilians could be used as human shields. And most civilians are still staying behind their locked doors. At the Rixos hotel, over 30 journalists are effectively being held hostage by Gaddafi gunmen. 
Loyalists are also reportedly lurking in the zoo and forest areas near the hotel, and on the airport road south we are hearing that Gaddafi followers have pulled civilians from their cars and shot them.
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As for where Gaddafi is, perhaps we should take him at his word when he said in his latest audio message that he would fight “until martyrdom or victory”. He said yesterday that he was walking around Tripoli incognito, and did not intend to leave Libya.
He could have fled 500 miles south to his desert stronghold of Sabha, from where he could escape to Niger or Chad. After all, he hasn’t been seen in public in months and he could have travelled there weeks ago; or he could be in his birthplace, the coastal town of Sirte, 500 miles east.
But Gaddafi may well be messianic and delusional enough to have stayed in his capital to fight to the bitter end. A better ending in his eyes perhaps, than being tried for crimes against humanity either by his own people or by the International Criminal Court.
Follow Jonathan Rugman on Twitter: @jrug