Nightly News   |  August 25, 2011

Where Gadhafi slept

NBC’s Richard Engel and Stephanie Gosk go inside Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s compound and explore the underground network of tunnels below it.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> now to libya tonight where nato has joined the hunt for gadhafi , still at large, no one knows where. there's a deal to release 1 monia 5 billion in assets frozen in u.s. banks. money the rebel leadership says it needs to pay salaries and basic supplies for the libyan people. today richard engel got inside gadhafi 's compound in tripoli and what they found, including a complex system of tunnels.

>> reporter: rebels advance with all the firepower they had. took away their injured and arrested a suspected mercenary. nearby for the first time, we were able to visit gadhafi 's compound. this is where gadhafi would come to address large crowds. it's ransacked, but hints survive of how he lived and how his glory fadeded.

>> this is one of gadhafi 's in suite bahathrooms, the lights are out. under this debris was gadhafi 's bed.

>>> and 20 feet below, an extensive system of bunkers.

>> reporter: he may have even used them to escape during the assault. there's a full command and control center here. these are lists of media organizations, cnn, abu dhabi . there is an exit here, a small little porthole that leads outside. the network of tunnels extends for miles. our colleague stephanie gosk saw more.

>> there's electricity, there are telephones, it's even wide enough for golf carts that gadhafi used to rides around all the time. it's not clear if he used this one, but he will not be using one any time soon. this is the stairs from the tunnels, it must lead to somewhere into gadhafi 's house. but it tells how paranoid he was, clearly they sealed it off for security.

>> reporter: the tunnels may have helped gadhafi escape, but now with a bounty on his head, it seems every rebel in libya is looking for him.