would. reporter: randi, it began before dawn this morning. heavy machine gunfire, tracer rounds erupting all over the place. by dawn, it was very clear. this was a government celebration. the government telling people on state television, calling us and telling us on the phone, the reason for the gunfire, the reason for the sell wracelebrat government had taken the city of zawiay, and misrata, another city in rebel hands and ras lanuf, a long way to the east of here. that s what we ve seen this morning since then. traffic in the green square, backing up. cars, people, celebrating, waving green flags. a lot of celebratory gunfire in the air. when i stopped to ask people why do you believe the government when it says these towns are now in government hands. it s true, just call, telephone, you will find out all of this is
executed and he said that he intends to die in libya, in his words, as a martyr. listen. translator: i have paid the price of my remaining here, my grandfather has fell martyr in the war before i am it s not possible that i leave this pl e place. i will be a martyr at the end. now, after gadhafi s speech today, we saw these scenes. take a look chblt these are the scenes playing out on libyan state television, crowds of people shoud shouting, chanting in support of their leader, waving green flags. elsewhere, though, the united nations security council met today behind closed doors. subject? libya and what to do about it. same with the arab league. people we ve talked to in tripoli say food is in short supply, the sound of gunfire
toward green square now. the streets in some intersections are lines with people flying green flags. there are people sitting on roofs of cars, sitting, hanging out the windows of cars, waving green flags. there s a real atmosphere of celebration this morning in the city. we ve seen people driving past our hotel firing ak-47s in the air. i m seeing some security guards on the tower, not far away from where i am, waving weapons in the air. people firing shots from their cars into the air, as they re driving by. all seems to be a very wild and chaotic celebration. government officials tell us this is a celebration because in their words, the army has re-entered ras lanuf in the east of the country and they say this is celebration because the army is now taking control of zawiya to the west of the capital. we haven t seen a celebration like this in the morning here.