Libya LiveBlog: And Now to the Task of Government

1848 GMT: Though the battle for Abu Salim is far from over, the opposition fighters, assisted by a NATO airstrike, have started to go house to house, cleaning out snipers and taking prisoners. Gunfights continue.

1841 GMT: Al Jazeera reports that the bodies of 30 people have been uncovered in Tripoli:

More than 30 men believed to be fighters loyal to Muammar Gaddafi have been killed at a military encampment in central Tripoli and at least two were bound with plastic handcuffs, indicating they had been executed.

A Reuters correspondent counted 30 bodies riddled with bullets in an area of the Libyan capital where there had been fighting between Gaddafi forces and rebels.

1636 GMT: The "we were all wrong and Qaddafi is winning" alert - Muammar Qaddafi has given yet another audio address. Here are some select quotes, courtesy of the BBC, Reuters, and the Twitterverse:

Qaddafi called on his loyalists to "fight and destroy" the rebels, he said that he enjoys the support of a "sweeping majority," and he urged the "youth of Tripoli" to " fight them everywhere, street street, zanga zanga (alley by alley). Purify Tripoli." Qaddafi closed with his signature,"Forward, forward, forward" closing.

1604 GMT: Al Jazeera is reporting that 1000-2000 Qaddafi loyalists may be inside Abu Salim, where a fierce firefight is still heating up. There is also fighting near the Rixos hotel.

1551 GMT: Things are really heating up in the Abu Salim area of Tripoli, near the Qaddafi compound. Over 1000 rebels are engaged in battle as we speak, and Sky News Reporters are stuck in the middle of the firefight.

1537 GMT: We have heard from Tripoli Timmy himself, Qaddafi spokesman Moussa Ibrahim:

Ibrahim said Gaddafi's morale was high. He "is indeed leading the battle for our freedom and independence". Ibrahim refused to say where in Libya Gaddafi was hiding. "All of the leader's family are fine," he said.

He said Gaddafi was capable of resistance for "weeks, months and years", and claimed loyalist fighters still controlled a "good portion" of the capital. This contradicts most media reports.

He said that he himself was in an undisclosed location in Libya and constantly on the move.

1520 GMT: Journalist Jenan Moussa has this update:

Fighting in 4 areas, not controlled by rebels in #tripoli so far: #Bouslim, #Hadba, Airport road, #Akwakh neighborhood.

1509 GMT: According to the Guardian, British and French special forces have been on the ground in Libya, directing the NATO bombing campaign and coordinating with oppositiong fighter leaders:

The soldiers have taken a leading role not just in bringing in bombers to blast a path for the rebels, but in planning offensives that over the past fortnight broke the city's six-month siege, said Mohammed Subka, a communications specialist in the Al Watum (My Home) brigade.

Now they are helping prepare what may be the final attack of the war, advising rebel units on the assault on Sirte, the last coastal stronghold still in the hands of pro-Gaddafi forces. "We are with the England team," said Subka. "They advise us."

Chris Stephen adds that these forces were critical to the taking of Tripoli, but they may have an even more important role in the assault on Qaddafi's last stronghold, Sirte:

Bombs have pancaked concrete buildings that Gaddafi's forces had modified as bunkers, while tanks lie ripped apart, their turrets and tracks strewn across the road. Further south, all that remains of an ammunition truck is a blackened carpet of splinters.

Kilometer 60 lies in the flat empty desert, no more than a sand-coloured mosque and a wrecked diner sitting at a traffic intersection. Ahead, past big earth berms, the highway is a shimmering tarmac ribbon running away into the desert and Sirte, still 80 miles distant.

Subka says the advance on the city cannot begin until government units sited along the south of the road ahead are cleared from their positions. On his computer he shows plots, apparently provided for him from Nato reconnaissance, showing the locations of artillery that threatens the road. "We don't worry about those units, they are Nato's concern," he said.

The opposition National Transitional Council would rather avoid an attack on Sirte, hoping that the fall of Tripoli will persuade pro-Gaddafi soldiers in the town to lay down their arms without a fight. But a spate of attacks from Sirte on Misrata by Scud missiles, the heaviest weapon in Gadafi's armoury, have added urgency to the task. The Scuds have been intercepted by US navy missiles, but Misratans fear that sooner or later one will get through, and the attacks have provoked the one source of tension between Nato and its rebel liaison officers.

1415 GMT: The rumour has shifted --- media are buzzing that the insurgents are surrounding an apartment block in central Tripoli where Qaddafi could be hiding.

1355 GMT: The hot rumour on the Internet --- Reuters is reporting, from some fighters, that they have surrounded Muammar Qaddafi in his compound in Bab Aziziya.

1318 GMT: The Guardian's Martin Chulov offers the latest news from Tripoli, where news military campaigns are starting, but the city itself is slowly returning to normal:

Martin Chulov witnesses Gaddafi troops continuing to fight around Tripoli airport from matthew weaver on Vimeo.

1250 GMT: Muammar Qaddafi, or at least Aisha, his daughter, had really nice things. The video is titled "Qaddafi Family Squander Libyan Money":

1243 GMT: Claim of the day, Qaddafi was hiding in a house yesterday when he was almost captured:

Libyan commandos fighting Muammar Gaddaficame close to capturing the toppled leader on Wednesday when they raided a private home in Tripoli where he appeared to have been hiding, Paris Match magazine said on Thursday.

Reuters then goes on to claim that Qaddafi only left the safe house when he received a "tip-off" that a raid was imminent, and there was evidence inside the home that he had spent at least one night there.

And there is where Reuters gets it wrong. Blake Hounshell points out that this is a translation error, Qaddafi didn't receive a tip, the opposition intelligence did.

Either way, the article claims that there is a high degree of coordination between the opposition intelligence and Arab state intelligence.

1234 GMT: Opposition fighters may have military control over large swaths of Tripoli, but residents of Tripoli are extremely nervous of the Qaddafi supporters who went underground when the opposition fighters entered the city. A centralized and organized security situation has yet to be established in Tripoli, and armed residents are erecting their own security checkpoints across the city. Al Jazeera's Sue Turton notes,

"There is a lot of nervousness … people are very worried that there are Gaddafi loyalists coming through these streets.

"They are worried there are going to be some sort of attacks across the city, not just in areas we know about, but even in areas like this that look quite sleepy. They are checking every car.

"Even though finding Gaddafi is a symbolic move now as his government is no longer in control of this country, not until he is found or killed will many people who are pro-Gaddafi realise that this is the end."

1231 GMT: This report from Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons:

Opp fighters sending in reinforcements from several areas including Tajoura to Abu Salim district Tripoli . Intensified fighting.

1115 GMT: The Arab League's Secretary General Nabil Elaraby has told reporters, "We agreed that it is time for Libya to take back its legitimate seat and place at the Arab League. The NTC will be the legitimate representative of the Libyan state."

The NTC's representative to the League, Abdelmoneim el-Houni, said Tripoli would resume its League membership at a meeting of Arab ministers on Saturday.

1112 GMT: Al Jazeera English broadcasts a feature on the fighting inside the #Qaddafi compound and the underground bunker beneath the complex:

1110 GMT: Andrew Simmons of Al Jazeera English tweets, "Driving around Tripoli and its suburbs not getting any easier, Suspicion at so many check points increasing."

1105 GMT: Four Italian journalists abducted near Zawiya, west of the Libyan capital Tripoli, on Wednesday have been freed, according to the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Two of the journalists worked for Corriere della Sera, while the others were reporters for La Stampa and Avvenire.

1030 GMT: Time magazine publishes the testimony of a Croatian artillery specialist from Bosnia, "Mario", who served the Qaddafi regime: "My men were mainly from the south [of Libya] and Chad, and there were a few others from countries south of Libya. Discipline was bad, and they were too stupid to learn anything. But things were O.K. until the air strikes commenced. The other side was equally bad, if not worse. [Muammar] Gaddafi would have smashed the rebels had the West not intervened."

Mario continued that by early July, more than 30% of the men under his command had deserted or defected to insurgents, as NATO missiles scored several direct hits on his forces, causing "significant casualties". At that point in the war, he said, "military hardware stopped having the role it [once did]. We had to use camouflage and avoid open spaces."

The mercentary claimed, "Many Libyans pretended loyalty just out of fear and were just seeking a way to turn against [Qaddafi]. Many officers admitted to me they stood no chance against NATO, and one of them told me he was in touch with the people in Benghazi." Benghazi is the rebel stronghold in the east of the country."

Mario left Tripoli two weeks ago after receiving a warning from a comrade that "things were going to rapidly change and that deals have been made". He tried to get hold of Muammar Qaddafi's son Saif al-Islam --- he "was beyond reach" but "later he called my companion to ask if we needed something and to say that they would win back all of Libya".

0705 GMT: American freelance journalist Matthew Van Dyke, who spent more than five months in isolation, was freed Wednesday from a Libyan prison, his mother said.

Van Dyke had not been heard from since he was arrested in Brega in north-central Libya by regime forces in March.

Van Dyke was one of six American civilians who were freed from Libyan prison. "We can confirm that all U.S. citizens who were known to be detained in Libya have been released," said U.S. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland. "The families of those detained individuals have been notified of their freedom and welfare."

Van Dyke was freed Wednesday with hundreds of other prisoners from Abu Selim Prison in Tripoli.

Meanwhile, video has been posted of some of the freed Abu Selim detainees on their flight back to Benghazi.

0700 GMT: Maram Wafa, a resident of Tripoli, uses an Al Jazeera English interview to urge all in the city to "please remain [at] home, remain safe because the city is full of snipers".

She said, "Everyone is staying indoors, everyone is staying indoors and we have to because we will make things more difficult, more complicated [for] the freedom fighters on the streets. They will not be able to completely focus on what is going on around them because they will automatically want to protect us."

0445 GMT: With one story (the release of the journalists and politicians at the Rixos Hotel in Tropoli) coming to an end and another (the fate of Muammar Qaddafi) no closer to resolution on Wednesday, some attention is turning to the bigger question: rebuilding a government for Libya.

The National Transitional Council's Ahmed Jibreel said last night that the first NTC delegation had moved to Tripoli today and the rest of its officials will be there within two weeks.

The NTC is pressing for billions of dollars of Libyan assets to be unfrozen to assist it in economic rebuilding and development, asking for $5 billion for "the process of stabilisation". In the United Nations, the US is asking the Security Council to release another $1.5 billion in frozen Libyan assets, and NTC senior official Mahmoud Jibril is in Italy today to ask for assistance.

Meanwhile, the NTC has put out a $1.7 million reward for the capture of Qaddafi who insisted on Wednesday, "I have been out a bit in Tripoli discreetly, without being seen by people, and...I did not feel that Tripoli was in danger."

Pockets of fighting continued in the capital, with Qaddafi snipers still firing upon the former leader's Bab Al Aziziya complex, which fell to the insurgents on Sunday. Qaddafi loyalists reportedly occupied Hadbha and were active in Abu Salim, and snipers are also in the extensive wooded areas around the city zoo.

Beyond Tripoli, there were reports that the insurgents are preparing a move to the east on Sirte, Qaddafi's hometown, which may be the last redoubt of the former regime.