(CNN) -- Moammar Gadhafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound is the heart of his nearly 42-year rule, a symbol of his defiance of the West. The sprawling complex houses modern government offices, the Bedouin tent in which Gadhafi received visitors and stands of palm trees. A bombed-out building remains as a monument to a 1986 U.S. airstrike that killed one of Gadhafi's daughters, along with a statue of a Libyan fist crushing an American jet. And Tuesday evening, after rebel fighters who have battled Gadhafi's forces for six months punched into the compound, it was wreathed in smoke. Rebels posed around the statue and fired hundreds if not thousands of rounds of ammunition into the air in celebration, spurring the occasional rebuke from senior fighters.
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The Bab al-Aziziya compound includes Gadhafi's home and government offices
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Also inside are a building hit in a 1986 U.S. airstrike and Gadhafi's Bedouin tent
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Rebel fighters overran the site on Tuesday after six months of fighting
The @placeholder ruler's tent was surrounded by a field of knee-high grass, as well as both uniformed and plainclothes guards.