The news of Sayif's suicide spread like a plague among the remnants of armed forces loyal to Sayif (GNA).
The self-destruction of their backbone shattered the last will to resist among the city's soldiers.
Despair engulfed Tripoli like a cold tide, submerging the remaining government army strongholds.
When the Haftar National Army (LNA) and the Vanguard troops of Song Heping's Mercenary Group began advancing into the city, they encountered almost no organized resistance.
Flags made from white sheets or even tattered rags were hastily raised on the war-torn streets, windows, and behind shelters in Tripoli, fluttering weakly in the breeze still thick with gunpowder.
At dawn, Tripoli declared the city had fallen.
At nine in the morning, Song Heping stood next to a BPM armored vehicle mounted with a heavy machine gun, watching as Haftar, surrounded by a retinue of guards, slowly drove into the city—the pinnacle of power—in a Toyota Land Cruiser marked with the LNA symbol.
