The Battle for Tripoli: Photographs by Yuri Kozyrev

In Libya, the fall of a dictator came faster than anyone expected. After six months of fighting along what were often stagnated front lines, the rebels succeeded last week in overwhelming the forces of Col. Muammar Gaddafi to take control of the Libyan capital. The sudden assault sent the enigmatic 69-year-old Libyan leader and his family into hiding; his forces scattering.

And throughout Tripoli, TIME contract photographer Yuri Kozyrev and I have watched over the past week as a population celebrates its victory over a tyrant. As security improves with each night, more and more families flock into the city’s iconic Green Square—now renamed Martyrs’ Square—where Gaddafi once delivered his bombastic speeches. And in a sprawling assortment of military bases, mansions, villas and farms, curious Libyans have sifted through the surprises and the horrors left behind by a 42-year-old regime.