Rebels claim that the 'zero hour has started' as gun battles reach Tripoli.

The advancement of rebels into Tripoli suggest that Gaddafi's days as Libyan president are numbered [Reuters]

Sustained automatic gun fire and a series of explosions have rung out in Tripoli, reports in the Libyan capital said.

Blasts and gunfire rocked Tripoli after the break of the dawn-to-dusk fast of Ramadan on Saturday and witnesses reported fighting in the eastern neighbourhoods of Souq al-Jomaa, Arada and Tajoura.

A government spokesman had earlier said an attack on Tripoli by rebels seeking to depose Muammar Gaddafi had been 'dealt with'.

'Sure, there were some armed militants who escaped into some neighborhoods and there were some scuffles, but we dealt with it within a half hour and it is now calm,' Moussa Ibrahim said.

'The situation is under control,' Ibrahim said on television, adding that pro-regime volunteers had repelled insurgents’ attacks in several neighbourhoods.

Ibrahim dismissed mounting speculation that the regime was on the brink as a 'media attack' but more gunfire was heard after he spoke on television.

Gaddafi message

In a live audio broadcast over state television early on Sunday, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi congratulated his supporters for repelling an attack by rebel 'rats' in the capital Tripoli.

Gaddafi accused French President Nicolas Sarkozy of trying to steal the country's oil and said that the rebels were 'bent on the destruction of the Libyan people.

Gunbattles and mortar rounds were heard clearly at the hotel where foreign correspondents stay in the capital.

He urged his supporters to 'march by the millions' and end a months-long rebellion which he termed a 'masquerade.'

'We have to put an end to this masquerade. You must march by the millions to free the destroyed towns' controlled by the rebels, he said in a message on state television.

Explosions also sounded in the same area as NATO aircraft carried out heavy bombing runs after nightfall.A senior official in the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) said on Sunday that Tripoli operation was coordinated between opponents of Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli and the rebels.

'The zero hour has started. The rebels in Tripoli have risen up,' said Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, vice-chairman of the NTC, based in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

'There is coordination with the rebels in Tripoli. This was a pre-set plan. They've been preparing for a while. There's coordination with the rebels approaching from the east, west and south.' Ghoga said NATO warplanes were launching raids to distract Gaddafi's forces.

'The next hours are crucial. Many of their (pro-Gaddafi) brigades and their commanders have fled.' He added.

‘Operation Mermaid’

Colonel Fadlallah Haroun, a military commander in Benghazi, said the battles marked the beginning of Operation Mermaid - a nickname for Tripoli.

He also said the assault was coordinated with NATO. Haroun told AP news agency that weapons were assembled and sent by tugboats to Tripoli on Friday night.

'The fighters in Tripoli are rising up in two places at the moment - some are in the Tajoura neighbourhood and the other is near the Matiga (international) airport,' he told Al-Jazeera.

Tajoura has been known since the beginning of the uprising in February as the Tripoli neighborhood most strongly opposed to Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

The head of the rebel's leadership council said they chose to start the assault on Tripoli on the 20th day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which fell on Saturday.

The date marks the ancient Islamic Battle of Badr, when Muslims conquered the holy city of Mecca in A.D. 624.

A representative for Tripoli on the rebel leadership council told the AP that rebels were surrounding almost every neighbourhood in the capital, and there was especially heavy fighting in Fashloum, Tajoura and Souq al-Jomaa.

In Benghazi, thousands of Libyans celebrated in the main city square, shooting fireworks and guns into the air, and waving the rebel tricolor flag.

Source: Agencies