Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi may still be in Tripoli as fierce fighting continues around his residence in the country’s capital, media reports said on Monday.
Government forces are refusing to surrender despite the rebels having gained control of much of Tripoli and arrested two of Gaddafi’s sons.
The embattled Gaddafi said on Sunday he “will stay till the end” and urged his supporters to keep fighting to liberate the capital from the rebels.
Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim, however, said on Sunday the government was ready for immediate negotiations with the rebels.
A pro-rebel activist in the capital told Reuters that the rebels were in a fierce gun battle with Gaddafi loyalists inside the Mitiga airbase in Tripoli's Tajoura district.
Clashes erupted on Monday after tanks left Bab Azaziya, Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli. Foreign journalists have been trapped inside the Rixos hotel.
"They are not allowed to leave the hotel because there are Gaddafi men in the area and around the area," Al Jazeera's correspondent Zeina Khodr said from Green Square.
