Tripoli had already attempted an uprising in February 2011, when protesters filled Green Square and set fire to the People's Hall of the General People's Congress. The regime crushed it. Loyalist forces shut down the internet, cutting the social networks that had helped structure the opposition. The city's sprawling layout worked against mass protest -- unlike compact Benghazi, Tripoli's neighborhoods were too spread out for demonstrations to reach critical mass. The opposition went underground, its members meeting in secret to restructure and plan. Weapons were smuggled into the city by tugboat over the following weeks. When the combined assault was finally organized, it was given a codename that invoked the city's ancient symbol: Operation Mermaid Dawn.

The attack came from every direction. On 19 August, arms were smuggled into Tripoli by boat. On the 20th, rebels in Zawiya fought for a strategic bridge on the road to the capital, 27 kilometers west. That same evening, the internal uprising erupted. By the early hours of 21 August, boats from Misrata and Zliten carrying rebel fighters and weapons landed on Tripoli's shores in an amphibious operation, while ground forces advanced from Zawiya through the towns of Joudaim and Al Maya. Loyalist resistance was fierce in some neighborhoods and crumbling in others. Rebels reportedly captured Tripoli International Airport and a weapons depot within the first night, though government spokesmen insisted the situation was under control -- 'a few scuffles' handled 'within a half-hour.'

The symbolic heart of the battle was the struggle for Green Square, the public plaza where Gaddafi's supporters had rallied for decades. As rebel forces pushed into the city center, tens of thousands of Tripoli residents poured into the square to celebrate. It was renamed Martyrs' Square. But the fighting was far from over. Loyalist snipers held positions in parts of the city, and Gaddafi's compound at Bab al-Azizia remained a fortified stronghold. The compound's fall on 23 August -- when guards surrendered and fighters stormed through the gates -- marked the effective end of regime control in the capital, though pockets of resistance continued for days. Gaddafi himself was not there; he and his family had already fled to Sirte, where he would be captured and killed two months later.

NATO airstrikes supported the rebel advance throughout the battle, targeting loyalist military positions and command centers. Qatari special forces were also reported to have participated. The human cost was severe: hundreds of people died on both sides during the days of fighting, with civilians caught in crossfire, sniper attacks, and the chaos of a city at war with itself. Foreign journalists trapped in the Rixos Al Nasr hotel were effectively held hostage by loyalist guards for days before being released. The battle ended Gaddafi's forty-two-year hold on power, but it did not bring the stability Libyans had fought for. The country fractured into rival factions, and Tripoli itself would see further conflict in the years that followed. The mermaid of the city's ancient symbol had risen -- but the dawn that followed proved long and uncertain.