Sky Man Sees Tripoli Celebrate Historic Day

The skies are full of anti-aircraft fire booming over Tripoli but they are not aimed at the Nato jets still roaring overhead - this is the sound of celebration in Libya's capital after a quite remarkable and historic day.

Through the evening and into the early hours, as I write, the crackle of gunfire has mixed with cheering and children's singing.

Col Gaddafi's infamous Bab al Aziziya compound, once thought of as impregnable as the Titanic was unsinkable, has fallen after a day of heavy fighting, horrendous casualties and death, but ultimately celebration.

The revolution is not yet complete but surely after months of fighting and government spin it is all but over.

There are still pockets of resistance even here, the city of Sirte has yet to fall and of course the Colonel has not been caught; but it really is just a matter of time now.

What a day. As we edged towards the compound walls fighting surrounded us. The rebels had the upper hand but heavy fire from inside kept forcing the rebel fighters in their "technicals" back.

Fighters high on adrenaline told us to move back but then urged us to move forward. Then the walls and gates fell on the northern edge and they streamed inside.

Just one breach of this massive fortress, but a breach that guaranteed the end was certain.

Hundreds raced through the fire from inside, gaining access to the inner sanctum and searching for resistance.

The Gaddafi house, bombed in the 1980s by the Americans but preserved as a symbol of the Colonel's own resistance, was overrun.

They turned on his famous tent and burned it down, his eagle statue overwhelmed with people climbing onto its strange jet-shaped headpiece.

Finally they moved on the ammunition stores that his military believed could help them survive even this onslaught.

The weapons were looted and hundreds, maybe thousands, began to stream out with their newly-found booty. A rebel commander told me they had tried to stop it but simply could not.

It is an understandable reaction of the crowds, but the type of behaviour the country's new government will have to stop as they will unbridled retribution. Big issues, but not for now.

Although this was a day of wild happiness, the dangers here continue.

The fighting is not finished but it cannot be long before there is peace and the serious business of rebuilding the country begins.