yes, their fighting will continue, even if they breach the outer walls. then they have to go and try to clear room to room. but then you are not dealing with a heavy weapon or tanks and artillery firing on the city, then it is more of a clearing operation like soldiers do when they move through a compound. yes, that could cause a lot of casualties, but it is not going to cause a lot of damage throughout the city. all righty. celebratory gunfire, but we don t know exactly what s happened inside the compound except that reporter: it could be a little premature. but it seems like the beginning of the end, yes? reporter: the beginning of the end, perhaps. once you breach the wall and they are fighting inside, it is a big compound, but you can t fight inside a walled compound forever. richard engel, thank you so much for your extraordinary reporting. the celebratory gunfire makes me more nervous here than it does with richard s experience there.
french, the brits and those leaders deserve credit, too. so it is a coalition victory and we should be pleased because a dictator shop is now probably about to vanish. bill richardson, good to see you. thank you so much. let me go back to you, richard. i m hearing more gunfire, but to the point the governor was making about violence and reprisals, and we have been reporting about the huge weapons storage facilities and they have already been raided in some cases. what s the reasonable likelihood that they won t be used for violence for reprisals and especially as he said, given the tribal nature of that society? reporter: already the libyans are armed, so if they wanted to start fighting among themselves and killing each other, they could do it right now. we haven t seen that take place thus far. there have been some reprisals against africans and there were
coming through. this is going until 5:00. we expect to have big crowds here like in the previous cities. joy-ann marie, thank you for your time. back to ek brag news in tripoli where libyan forces seem to be making headway against pro-gadhafi forces at his fortified compound in the center of the city. there s been fierce fighting outside the compound. in fact, that s the one major place in tripoli where we have been hearing the gunfire and have been seeing the black smoke coming out. clearly, we still don t know the whereabouts of moammar gadhafi. i m joined by congressman mike rogers from michigan and a former fbi agent. my first question for you is probably an unanswerable one, but what are the chances that moammar gadhafi is inside that compound? well, i mean, the fact that you see such heavy resistance there, heavy gunfire, it is a compound we know he utilized in the past.
see in your immediate area. you said there were people on the ground actually shouting? reporter: well, i think we can show you some of that. we are on a rooftop right now, not exactly a balcony. the gadhafi compound is off in the distance. word is spreading now that the rebels have gone inside. if you go down to street level, a family has come out of their homes waving the tri-colored rebel flag. these are rebel vehicles heading in that direction. if you go a little bit farther back in that direction, there are people there on the corner also holding flags and celebrating. people are coming out on the streets and we are hearing the odd shouts of seb a terror gunfire. celebratory gunfire. the celebration of victory hasn t come here yet. the fighting is ongoing and they have breached a wall and are inside the compound. and people here are just waiting for the word, if it comes, that the compound has been taken. and then they are hopeful that they will hear word that gadhafi
bicycles, anything that was inside is now going out the gates. richard, as i understand it from your reporting fighting has ceased at this point and the gunfire we hear is distinctly a libyan type of celebration. they re firing gunshots straight into the year? reporter: yes. there has been a lot of celebratory gunfire. there will be more of that tonight. this is a every time people have started to celebrate with gunfire i think one is over. i think what news around this country is tonight we re going to be hearing gunfire ringing out throughout the city. i can tell one thing on a personal note, i thought this might happen. i have a pair of ear plugs in my pocket. i m going to be wearing them all