It was unclear who was carrying out the shooting, which started at about 5:45am (0345 GMT) on Sunday, or what caused it, Anita McNaught, Al Jazeera's correspondent in the capital, said.
Automatic weapon rounds, some of it heavy calibre, echoed around central Tripoli along with pro-government chants and whistling and a cacophony of car horns as vehicles sped through the vicinity, witnesses said.
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However, a government spokesman denied any fighting was under way in Tripoli. "I assure you, I assure you, I assure you, I assure you, there is no fighting going on in Tripoli," Mussa Ibrahim told the Reuters news agency.
"Everything is safe. Tripoli is 100 per cent under control. What you are hearing is celebratory fireworks. People are in the streets, dancing in the square."
McNaught reporting from Green Square in Tripoli, said that thousands of people had turned out to show their support to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
“The square is absolutely thronged with supporters of Gaddafi,” McNaught reported, saying there was music playing and people firing guns in the air to celebrating the Libyan leader’s claimed tactical advances.
“There are many people here who admire him as a man. There is a cult of Gaddafi in this country, there always have been,” she explained, adding that the support in the capital was far from universal.
Tripoli is the main stronghold of Gaddafi, who is facing a sustained rebellion that has posed the biggest challenge ever to his more than 41-year-old rule.
Conflicting reports
Libyan state television said the shots were in celebration of Gaddafi forces having reclaimed the cities of Misurata and Az-Zawiyah, which lies just 50km west of Tripoli, a day after anti-government fighters repelled repeated attacks by forces loyal to Gaddafi.
However, residents of Misurata told Al Jazeera that reports the city had been recaptured were false.
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"There's absolutely no grounds for that claim whatsoever," Sadoun Mistrai, one resident, said.
"The last couple of nights have been calm in the city of Misurata."
The army - most of which has turned against Gaddafi in that area - as well as protesters have encircled a small pocket of militia loyal to Gaddafi in part of the air force base in the south of the city, but there has been no direct fighting for two days, he said.
State TV meanwhile showed pictures of tanks, armoured-personnel carriers and other weapons it said were seized on Saturday from rebels in Az-Zawiyah.
But witnesses told Al Jazeera rebel forces there were able to repel heavy government assaults on their positions on Saturday when Gaddafi's forces encircled the city.
More than 30 people were killed and as many as 200 people were said to have been wounded in the fighting that drove government forces out of the town.
Youssef Shagan, a spokesman for the fighters in the town, said that Gaddafi's forces had entered Az-Zawiyah at 6am (04:00 GMT) with hundreds of soldiers, along with tanks and armoured vehicles.
Gaddafi's forces had broken through defences into Martyrs' Square, in the heart of the town, but hours later were pushed back, Shagan said.
Rebel gains
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Elsewhere, anti-government forces were in control of Ras Lanuf, which houses a major refinery and petrochemical complex, and the nearby town of Bin Jawad.
The area is significant because it takes the fighters closer to Sirte, a Gaddafi stronghold and his hometown.
Hoda Abdel-Hamid, Al Jazeera's correspondent who visited the area, said rebels told her they are gaining ground in the area surrounding the capital and may be as close as 40km to Sirte.
"The rebels have advanced easily through many other towns, where they have been met with general support, the battle for Sirte is likely to be much tougher," she said.
"Some people fear the big battle will be there."
'Call to arms'
Benghazi, Libya's second city, is in the hands of anti-government forces, but Libyan state television said on Sunday that forces loyal to Gaddafi are on their way to the city.
Tony Birtley, Al Jazeera's correspondent reporting from Benghazi, said that resistance to Gaddafi's rule was strengthening.
"I think they're coming to the realisation that the outcome is in their own hands. They did think that Gaddafi would leave peacefully, they then thought that the international community would take steps and force him out," he said.
"I think the pendulum has swung now and they believe it is in their own hands.
"They are answering the call to arms, they are coming from all over eastern Libya, bringing their weapons, getting whatever training they can and moving on."
Meanwhile, the head of the newly-formed interim council, based in Benghazi, told Al Jazeera that the council is pushing for international recognition soon.
Mustafa Abdel Jalil, a former justice minister who defected from Gaddafi's camp after protests against the Libyan leader's rule erupted two weeks ago, told Al Jazeera that a number of former diplomats have been appointed to key posts.
The group announced it had set up a crisis committee, to be headed by Mahmoud Jebril, one of a group of intellectuals who had called for a democratic state.
Omar Hariri, one of the officers who took part in Gaddafi's 1969 coup but was later jailed, was appointed head of military affairs and Ali Essawi, a former ambassador to India who quit last month, was put in charge of foreign affairs.
Gaddafi has had little success in taking back rebel-held territory - which includes the entire eastern half of the country and some cities near the capital - but a number of cities, including Tripoli, remain firmly under his control.
Human rights groups say about 6,000 people have been killed since protests against Gaddafi erupted on February 15. The UN says that more than 1,000 have died.
Western powers say they are studying a no-fly zone against Libya to prevent attacks on civilians.
But diplomats say that no official request for such action has been made to the UN Security Council
URL du billet: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/03/2011366229544277.html
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