we re watching some new video just into our newsroom of some of the scenes we re seeing there in tripoli. as you report from inside the compound, richard, the obvious question is who s in charge now? who is in charge of keeping law and order? we remember during the egyptian uprising you did have that strong institution of the military that the people respected. clearly there s no such analog in libya. so who will keep the order? reporter: there is no order right now. certainly in this compound it is clearly lawless. they re firing in the air. they re stealing weapons. they are celebrating. the order will be kept by the people themselves, by their tribes, by a loose leadership council, by the rebels, the mosques will play a role. already the mosques were playing a role in getting the word out. i m on the phone right now it
from the ground? reporter: no. they are following the news reports reich everybody else. not only at pentagon, but at nato because they don t have boots and eyes on the ground. they have to gend in large part on what they re hearing indirectly through the rebel sources that report back to their leadership in benghazi. and the media reports. there are reporters actually with the rebels inside the compound there. if in fact, the rebels have taken control over that entire compound, that could deal a serious blow to the command and control efforts of the libyan military because that pretty much was the center of the libyan military. but pentagon officials are quick to caution that even if that compound has fallen there are still elements of the gadhafi military, progadhafi forces not only in and around tripoli, but outside of tripoli that are still conducting offensive military operations. so, the fight was is not over yet. the key question that i know you re going to ask, contessa,
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
he could live quite comfortably in here and receive guests. he d drive around in golf carts and be prepared if this building ever came under attack because of the high walls and because of the massive amounts of weapons in here. richard, you mentioned nato s role being decisive at key moments particularly the air support that rebels received from nato forces which of course also involved american assets. my question to you is we see there s no shortage of weapons there. are those weapons being supplied by nato forces? where are they coming from? reporter: i m not sure i heard all of your question. the nato role in this was clearly decisive. today there was a nato role in briefing the compound. we heard nato jets this morning as the battle for gadhafi s compounds began. we heard the loud booms, the
influential of gadhafi s children. raising his hands in a victory sign earlier today. it s not clear that this is a done deal. absolutely not. after what happened yesterday, we shouldn t believe some of these early claims until we see them in custody and until other sources confirm it. i think this is these are the last moments. these are the last moments of the gadhafi s regime. black smoke as you can see on the right-hand side of your screen now rising above muammar gadhafi s compound there in libya. this was considered military headquarters there in tripoli. and yet, the rebels now say they ve taken it over. in fact, i saw a report that the rebels had raised a flag, raised the rebel flag above this compound and the google earth is showing that compound?