Rebels Loot Gadhafi Compound

Rebels and their supporters gleefully looted Moammar Gadhafi’s Bab Azizia compound in Tripoli today, celebrating the fall of the regime by making off with various valuables and weaponry from hastily abandoned homes. “The money of the Libyan people is now going to the Libyan people,” one bank employee told the LA Times, as he helped himself to a space heater, a satellite receiver, and a huge dagger.

Other groups of rebels burned symbols of Gadhafi’s rule, like his famed Bedouin tents. Still others made for his weapons—a brief firefight broke out over one particularly enticing stash of assault rifles. But there were almost no reports of looting outside the complex. “They are only stealing and looting Bab Azizia, not banks or even government institutions,” pointed out one rebel supporter. “We took things because, for 42 years, he took everything from us.” (More Libya stories.)