Hundreds of Libyan rebels stormed Moammar Gadhafi’s compound Tuesday, charging wildly through the symbolic heart of the crumbling regime as they killed loyalist troops, looted armories and knocked the head off a statue of the besieged dictator. But they found no sign of the man himself. The storming of Bab al-Aziziya, long the nexus of Gadhafi’s power, marked the effective collapse of his 42-year-old regime.

Gadhafi speaks to reporters at the same Bab Al-Aziziya compound in this Feb. 5, 2001 file photo.

A still image from mobile phone video footage obtained by the Misrata-based Human Rights Activists Association between February and July 2011 and purportedly taken from the mobile phone of a captured government soldier. It shows what appears to be Gadhafi loyalists beating two men in civilian clothes in Misrata. The men being assaulted, part of a group tied up in the back of a truck, are ordered to chant pro-Gadhafi slogans. With the rebels now in Tripoli and Gadhafi’s whereabouts unknown, those gigabytes of potential evidence may play a role in any war crimes trials.

A Libyan rebel holds weapons he seized at Bab Al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli on Tuesday, after overrunning Muammar Gadhafi’s Tripoli bastion.

Children celebrate the fall of Tripoli, in Janzour, on Tuesday.

A Libyan girl weeps for joy as she celebrates at Green Square, renamed Martyrs Square by rebels, in Tripoli on Tuesday. The words on the girl’s hand behind read “Free in Green Square.”

A Libyan rebel talks on his walkie-talkie near the tent of Gadhafi at Bab Al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli on Tuesday.

Members of the media gather in the basement at the Rixos hotel in Tripoli on Tuesday.

Employees of Libya’s embassy burn a portrait of Gadhafi at the garden of the embassy in Buenos Aires on Tuesday.

SD-Agencies