Libyan rebels have launched a huge offensive on leader Muammar Gaddafi's sprawling Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli.Rebel fighters had warned earlier on Tuesday they maymount an attack backed by captured tanks at the compound, within the centre of the capital.The sound of the fighting was probably the maximumintense heard within the townsince rebels surged into the capital three days ago, as thick smoke billowed out of the complex.The sky was stuffed withthe sound of machine guns in addition to mortars, with the overhead roar of NATO jets which were finishing up more intense air raids.Even two kilometres from the fighting, the just about constant whistle of falling bulshall wemay well be heard from the rooftops, because the town's mosques chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God is the niceest).Exultant rebel fighters packed in trucks and cars have since Sunday streamed around the capital of the oil-rich North African state, seizing control of Gaddafi's state television network and Tripoli's seaside Green Square.however the europeanphoria in their lightning encheck outinto the guts of the capital, which sparked celebrations and predictions that Gaddafi's days are numbered, has given method to caution thon the fighting is much from over.Gaddafi's whereabouts are unknown however there's suspicion he's still in Tripoli.Meanwhile, the son and heir appahireof Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Seif al-Islam, has resurfaced free and defiant an afternoon after rebels claimed to have captured him.He boasted that his father's loyalists still control portionsof Tripoli and would crush the rebellion.Television images showed a jubilant and free Seif al-Islam meeting supporters outside a hotel before claiming that forces unswervingto his father had "damagedthe backbone" of the rebel offensive.He also indicated that Gaddafi remained within the violence-torn capital, stating thon the weakening regime remained up to speed.Rebels said another Gaddafi son, Mohammed, had escaped home arrest.Seif al-Islam, wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, met with an Agence France-Presse correspondent and two other journalists, when ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said rebel forces had arrested him."Tripoli is under our control. Everyone should rest assured. All is easily in Tripoli," the defiant son of the Libyan strongman told the 3 journalists outside his father's Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli within the early hours of Tuesday.Seif al-Islam claimed the rebels had suffered "heavy casualties" on Monday once they stormed Gaddafi compound."i'm here to refute the lies," he said about reports of his arrest.The rebel leadership seemed stunned that Seif al-Islam was free.The leadership's spokesman, Sadeq al-Kabir, had no explanation and will only say, "this will be all lies."He couldn't make surewhether Seif al-Islam escaped rebel custody but he did say that Mohammed Gaddafi had escaped the spacearrest that rebels had placed him in an afternoon earlier.Seif al-Islam, with a whole beard and dressed inan olive-green T-blouseand camouflage trousers, turned up early Tuesday morning on the Rixos hotel, where about 30 foreign journalists are staying in Tripoli under the close watch of regime minders.Riding in a white limousine amid a convoy of armoured 4WDs, he tokreporters on a drive through portionsof the town still under the regime's control.CNN reported that Seif al-Islam said his father and the remainder of the Gaddafi family were still in Tripoli.In Washington DC, an Obama administration official said the U.S. had no indication that Gaddafi had left Libya.Gaddafi's forces remained active on Monday, firing off a brief-diversityScud missile close toSirte, Gaddafi's hometown and one of the maximumfew remaining cities still under his control, said US military officials.It was untransparentwhere the missile landed or if anyone was hurt.NAto promiseed to maintain its air campaign until all pro-Gaddafi forces surrender or return to their barracks.The alliance's warplanes have hit no less than 40 targets in and around Tripoli prior to now two days - the top number on a single geographic location because the bombing started in March, NATO said.