from celebration to confusion in less than one day. this time yesterday we were reporting how rebels were gaining on tripoli. international leaders talking about a new political era and rebels bragging they had captured gadhafi's son. then saif appeared overnight and said he lured them into a trap. as we look at the live pictures out of tripoli, we still don't know if gadhafi is in his compound or not but nato jets are flying low over his compound. at least one explosion has been reported. nato won't confirm any bombing, however. and rebels are engaged in fierce fighting near the compound as well. as we heard just a moment ago, a rebel official reporting they have actually breached the gates there. we are hitting the story hard with multiple correspondents on the ground. matthew chance in the heart of tripoli. arwa damon reporting from the city's airport and sarah sidener and frederik pleitgen is in ben gaza. state to matthew chance who is caught up in a pretty dangerous situation and so dangerous we are not able to bring him up live at this point. he did file this report, i'd say, less than an hour ago. here it is. >> reporter: i'm in this hotel, rixos hotel the center of the compound of moammar gadhafi. all morning ferocious clashes. gunfire, explosions taking place. in the direction of that compound. you can't see the compound from our vantage point here. at one point, all of the journalists that had gathered in the hotel moved downstairs into the basement because we felt there was some sort of incoming artillery shells striking areas very close to where the hotel is. there has been a lot of outgoing artillery as well and a huge battle is under way at the moment between the rebels and the gadhafi loyalists who we now know to be holed up to some extent in that gadhafi compound in the center of tripoli. that is the situation i see it at the moment from our very limited vantage point. we are not hearing, at the moment, any nato jets in the skies over tripoli. we are hearing explosions and what we are assuming those explosions are are artillery shells being exchanged between the two sides in this area of the gadhafi compound. but what we are not hearing the kind of heavy air strikes that we witnessed in this city in this area of tripoli over the past several weeks and particularly in the past several days. and not hearing aircraft in the skies over this area that is in the hands of gadhafi forces. so it's difficult for me to, you know, admittedly, it's difficult for me to, you know, give a very comprehensive assessment of what the military situation is like outside because, at the moment, i'm lying on my belly in a hotel room, hoping we don't get hit by a shell. >> well, in just a couple of miles to the east of matthew's hotel, fresh fighting, we are being told, near tripoli's international airport and where we find our arwa damon. she entered the city with a group of rebels and joining us live from the airport with the latest. what can you tell us, arwa? >> reporter: we are hearing a number of sgloexplosions in the distance and fighting with the rebel fighters saying it was coming from clashes happening to the north along the strategic highway that leads straight from this international airport all the way to the bab al se circumstances ziya compound. they are trying to regain the strategic location. this highway between the airport and gadhafi's compound is critical for a number of reasons. it is located along two military complexes and one of them a major refueling station. the other a fuel storage facility. also two main military bases located to the east. while the rebel fighters continue to push to the north to reinforce those units they are currently engaged in fighting around the bab al aziziya compound. they tell us it's a tough and slow road ahead. >> we have a tough connection with you, arwa. we are still able to make you out and hear you pretty clearly but we are looking at a live picture out of tripoli right now. you can actually see the smoke coming from the compound. are you getting any new information from your vantage point? can you see this as well? what do you know? i know this is all kind of happening at once but we are hearing gunfire and seeing smoke and we have a picture now not far from the compound. >> reporter: we can't really see that from our vantage. >> we apologize. we had a feeling that might happen. as you can see, if you're just tuning in, we were able to get a pretty solid live picture from tripoli right now where there's reports of explosions, nato won't confirm bombing but we are getting reports of explosions and some fierce fighting right there at the gates of gadhafi's tripoli compound. we are going to stay on this live picture and try and monitor it. you heard from our matthew chance who filed a report less than an hour ago. he had not heard any jets overhe overhead at this point but we are keeping you up-to-date what is happening on these reports of attacks on gadhafi's compound. we want to point out, we still can't confirm if moammar gadhafi is there on his compound or not. we have a number assets there in country trying to get information. a lot of conflicting information. it's definitely hard, as you listen to all of the various sides within this -- this struggle to actually find out what is going on and to get truth. everybody has a different story at this point, but at least we can show you the live pictures. we are seeing smoke. we are hearing gunfire and we are trying to work this all -- work ourselves through the live pictures and the various bits of information we are getting from a number of sources at this point. okay. do we have -- we do have. okay, excellent. we are assad who we will talk to coming up in 15 minutes. you may remember, we talked to him yesterday. he used to be an aide and also an interpreter for moammar gadhafi. professor, i appreciate you joining us once again this morning via skype there from your university. >> thank you. >> let me just ask you, since -- we were able to get this live picture. you can actually see the smoke coming from the compound. we are getting all of these various reports about what is the status of moammar gadhafi and what exactly happened to his sons. this time yesterday, when you and i were talking, the rebels said they had captured both of them. as you know, overnight, matthew chance was able to interview saif al islam. he said he lured the rebels into a trap and he was never captured. what is your take on all of this? you used to work side-by-side with the gadhafi family. >> well, it is very interesting, because after gathering all kinds of information and news that he was actually under house arrest, he and his brother muhammad, each one of them. the problem is here that we're looking at is that you part of a war, an urban war. you can't really capture somebody and leave them under house arrest when you really don't have a control over the whole city. they should have whisked him and his brothers out of the area and put them in a safe spot, say, like back in zuwiyah or any spot they could protect them. the mistake they did and rebels are absolutely confessing to that mistake that they actually kept him under house arrest. you can't really keep that when you don't have a full patrol of a city. >> professor, stay with me. i understand we have got matthew chance calling in from the rixos hotel. can you hear me okay, matthew? can you tell what your situation is and if you're still hunkered down in the hotel? use yeah, we are still in the rixos hotel. journalists are still in the basement of this hotel as well for the most part, because all around the building here and close to the compound of colonel gadhafi which is a short distance away from the rixos hotel, there have been these ferocious battles rage, presumably, between the control of this area between the gadhafi loyalists still holed up very much in this part of tripoli, and the rebels who, you know, are controlling some areas of the capital as well. there are heavy machine gunfire and all of the journalists in the hotel have their body armor on and helmets because one of the things that happened a few moments ago was that there was what was said to be a sniper firing a round into the hotel. it's not clear from which direction that bullet came. but, obviously, it was another, you know, kind of, you know, decks to which the experience of being in this hotel and covering this conflict from this vantage point has plunged. but having said that, on the upside, the electricity is on. i'm able to phone out on occasion and call back to you for updates and try to continue to do that throughout the course of the day. >> matthew, can you still speak to me for a moment or do you feel it's not safe to talk to me right now? you tell me. >> reporter: no, i think it's fine to speak to you. i've got a bit of a time limit on the amount of time i can use this cell phone call. we haven't been able to charge our batteries up. >> i want you to charge up your battery. yes or no you can tell me quickly from the information you're getting and as you put it last night, it's kind of hard to figure out what is true and what is not at this point. you even got a quote from a fellow journalist lying as a national sport in libya so it's hard to weed through what is fact and fiction. to your knowledge, do you believe gadhafi is holed up in his compound or not? >> reporter: well, there's no way for us to verify that, obviously, but interesting to say saif al islam gadhafi told me all of his family is in tripoli and working on the assumption that means in some kind of bunker in the gadhafi compound but we have no way of knowing that for sure. what we do know is that compound of buildings associated with colonel gadhafi has been heavily bombed over the past several months. so if members of the gadhafi family are there, they are presumably in bunkers very deep underthe under the ground but it's very difficult for us to say with any certainty. there is very little limited vantage point we have in the rixos hotel. >> charge your batteries and stay in touch with us when you can. we appreciate all of the information we are able to get to you at this point. professor, you were able to hear from matthew chance there and for our viewers that may not be familiar with you in our interview yesterday, he used to be a personal aide to moammar gadhafi and his interpreter. you're here in the states as a professor. you actually told me yesterday you do not believe moammar gadhafi is in tripoli, that this is very much a ruouge. please tell me if you still believe that that is the case and why. >> i still think it is -- it is the case. i don't think he is in the compound. once the compound was bombarded the first time, he was removed from there but into other residents in tripoli as i have heard. but in the last couple of weeks, you know, and you have been receiving all -- copes of his messages to the libyan people through the libyan television and the quality of his messages has deteriorated. the audio of the phone calls and that began to confirm in my mind that he has been already removed, either to sirte, which is his hometown, which is a stronghold, and it is under his control and the forces that are in sirte are led by one of his sons, and the other possibility could be the city of southwest of tripoli where his tribal group, his tribal members are very strong there and he has a very strong military presence in that particular city down in the desert. so those are the two possibilities i would think of that after the heavy bombardment of his compound that could be the alternative. >> professor, as gadhafi's former aide and interpreter, one journalist who matthew chance was talking to said, look, here in libya, lying is a national sport. you can't figure out who is telling the truth and what exactly we're dealing with at this time. let me get it from your perspective. first of all, saif al islam says he lured the rebels into a trap, that his dad is still in charge. what do you make of what saif is saying? do you believe that he was captured? that he escaped, that he wasn't captured at all? that this is part of a big lie to try and promote a certain image? >> well, let us look at it from the perspective of how -- how events went. sunday night, the revolution said they captured him and one of his brothers. all monday, had he a chance to refute it and he did not refute it until very early tuesday when he spoke with matthew. so when you think about it, why didn't he refute it very quickly in order to rise the morale of his fighters down in the city of tripoli? so, to me, that he actually -- and rebel side is saying they had him under house arrest. so here really we don't know the truth. really lying not a sport in libya. you are dealing with a war propaganda. each side is trying to make the other side look worse and basically what he is doing. he came out and ordered just to make that particular point. >> abubaker saad, appreciate so much of you weighing in. please stay with us. for those of you not familiar with professor saaad he is now at west connecticut university and a former aide to gadhafi and helping us sift through the information we have been getting there. sarah, i understand, has been able to link up with us now and joining us live our zawiyah where apparently fresh fighting is being reported. sarah, bring us up-to-date. >> reporter: actually, we are in tripoli and no fighting in zawiyah where we just were. we are in tripoli and here an hour now. we can hear the fighting going on and heard from the rebels they have sort of surrounded the area of bab al seiziya where the compound is. we are seeing something different than yesterday. we were in the same area yesterday going into the city center. what we are seeing is residents fleeing like we have not seen before. when we speak them to go on camera many will not go on camera saying that everything is fine, everything is fine, but we clearly see that people are becoming quite scared. they don't want to be in the city any more and not sure where the gunfire is coming from on whose side. it's coming towards their neighborhood. it is a street-to-street fight in the city. even the media, we have been asked questions even by the rebels where to go because some of them don't seem to know if it's safe in zawiyah where we were, if it's secure. a bit of a communication breakdown between those managing the checkpoints and those in the city and fighting so very difficult and intense situation here in tripoli. >> sarah, let me ask you, we just got word from mahmoud, the information minister of the council there. he came forward ten minutes ago and said he estimates conservatively that rebels control 85% of tripoli right now. you just made your way into tripoli. what is your take with regard to that number and what he is saying? >> reporter: to be honest, i'm not sure they know how much of tripoli they control. we were hearing 85%, 95% depending on who you talk to and that was yesterday. then we heard people saying it's not safe in the city center and problems in some neighborhoods and having a firefight in that neighborhood. i think communication is very difficult here and we know that from our own perspective and we know some of the phones are not getting through so the communications are very, very difficult. we do know, however, the rebels control some parts of tripoli and a pretty large portion because we were able to drive around in those areas for the past ten hours or so. but i think it's very, very hard to assess just how much of the city that they have complete control over because, again, there are streets in which you can turn down and suddenly face with gadhafi forces. now, gadhafi forces don't seem to be in large numbers, to be fair, they are having incidents such as dealing with snipers and that sort of thing. to get an assessment of the entire city, i think, is difficult at this time. i want to bring this up. we just heard from the rebels that they have -- the national transitional council has set up an office now just on the outskirts of tripoli, so they are here. the political wing of the opposition is here set up in a secret place. we can't tell you exactly where that is but we hear from our rebel sources they are in the area and that is a significant change. >> got it. sarah sidener, thank you very much. stay with cnn. we will take a quick break. you're looking at live pictures now out of tripoli. apparently, the smoke has pretty much cleared over moammar gadhafi's compound but we can tell you, according to our matthew chance who is hunkered not far from there in a hotel that there have been explosions. there is fierce fighting. some reports coming through, rebels saying they breached the gates of gadhafi's compound. bottom line, we still cannot confirm if moammar gadhafi is there on his compound. we are following all of the breaking news for you live here in the "cnn newsroom." that one day on the red hills of georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. i have a dream today! 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[ male announcer ] with global services from dell, jim can address his company's i.t. needs through custom built applications, cloud solutions and ongoing support in over 100 countries. so his company sees results. and jim sees his family. dell. the power to do more. hurricane irene is crashing through the atlantic and gaining a lot of strength right now. it left some flooding and damage in the dominican republic and, apparently, it's headed toward the bahamas now. >> a major threat for life and property. the turks and caicos next in line here. it is a powerful category 2 storm and maximum winds around a hundred miles per hour but it is well to the north now of the dominican republic and so intensification is going to be specked right up until the time we see a major landfall. this is moving through the turks and caicos and heading towards the bahamas. all of the bahamas really getting lashed by this major hurricane. category 3 as you head through the day on thursday, florida will likely start to feel the impacts of this on thursday as well. but it's just going to be the coastal areas for the most part that are going to be brushed with some winds and some heavy rain as well. and then it's expected to take a northerly turn and make its way on up towards the carolinas. now, the computer models have been shifting eastward. a trend we have been seeing through the weekend and the early part of this week. that white line is a national hurricane center forecast and look at everything trending towards the east. nothing brings it towards florida any more. but this is a very big storm, kyra, almost 400 miles wide, that's how far the tropical storm force winds stretch out so everybody across the southeast will feel the impact of this storm. we will keep you up-to-date. >> thank you, jacqui. more from the "cnn newsroom" straight ahead. ♪ [ male announcer ] they'll see you...before you see them. cops are cracking down on drinking and riding. drive sober, or get pulled over. hilive pictures out of tripoli. the smoke is still billowi