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Lots of conflicting chatter today saying that Kadafi is seeking asylum in several countries, that he's arranging for transport of his family, that rebels have actually seized Tripoli, that Kadafi has beaten them back and is asserting control. For instance, as explosions and gunfire rage across the capital, state media is broadcasting reports that all is calm and the rebels have fled.

All we know is that a lot is happening, but foreign press have been barred from attending briefings, so it's not clear entirely what exactly is happening.

LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...,2341017.story

Dramatic gains by rebels in recent days suggest for the first time in the 6-month-old uprising that Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi is losing his grip on power as emboldened opposition forces push closer to the capital, Tripoli.

The Libyan battle map is strung with Kadafi defeats. The rebel advance in Zawiya, about 30 miles west of Tripoli, has cut supply routes to his army. Opposition fighters have further squeezed Tripoli by taking Gharyan to the south. And to the east, insurgents seized the strategic coastal town of Zlitan.

...

"The end is very near," rebel leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil told reporters Saturday. He said of Kadafi: "I expect a catastrophic end for him and his inner circle."

Rebels claimed they had gained control of the oil city of Port Brega, about 415 miles southeast of Tripoli. The city in recent months had swung back and forth between Kadafi and rebel control and has been the scene of heavy fighting. Hostilities also spread beyond Libya's borders as armed men in pickup trucks believed to be Kadafi supporters briefly clashed with border guards in Tunisia early Saturday.

Rebels also suggested that the Libyan leader was losing pockets of the capital, which has seen an exodus of frightened residents.

"The situation in Tripoli is like a man in his late stages of cancer and waiting," said Col. Ahmed Omar Bani, spokesman for the rebel army. "Kadafi's troops are not in command of the city anymore. Residents broke the wall of fear and started carrying out operations and fighting against the troops … using Molotov cocktails and homemade bombs and other weapons that were sneaked to Tripoli."

Such assertions could not be independently confirmed but the eccentric and verbose Kadafi has kept an uncharacteristically low profile as NATO airstrikes have rumbled in and around the capital. His government released an audio recording last week of Kadafi telling his countrymen that "the blood of martyrs is fuel for the battlefield."