A senior rebel official says the military unit in charge of protecting Moammar Gadhafi and the capital Tripoli has surrendered. Mahmoud Shammam, the rebel minister of information, told the Associated Press on Sunday that the unit commander "has joined the revolution and ordered his soldiers to drop their weapons."

When the unit dropped its arms, it essentially opened the way for the rebels to enter the city with little resistance.

EARLIER AP STORY BELOW:

The trappings of Moammar Gadhafi's regime crumbled Sunday as hundreds of euphoric Libyan rebels overran a major military base defending the capital, carted away truckloads of weapons and raced to the outskirts of Tripoli with virtually no resistance.

The rebels' surprising and speedy leap forward, after six months of largely deadlocked civil war, was packed into just a few dramatic hours. By nightfall, they had advanced more than 20 miles to the edge of Gadhafi's last major bastion of support.

Along the way, they freed several hundred prisoners from a regime lockup. The fighters and the prisoners -- many looking weak and dazed and showing scars and bruises from beatings -- embraced and wept with joy.

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