Muammar Gaddafi is dead, says Libyan PM | World news | The Guardian Muammar Gaddafi is dead, says Libyan PM Former Libyan dictator reportedly killed as government forces overrun home town of Sirte Muammar Gaddafi is dead, says Libyan PM Former Libyan dictator reportedly killed as government forces overrun home town of Sirte Thursday 20 October 2011 10.46 EDT First published on Thursday 20 October 2011 10.46 EDT Close This article is 5 years old Muammar Gaddafi has been killed after his home town, Sirte, was overrun by fighters seeking to complete the eight-month uprising in Libya, the interim prime minister has announced. The former dictator reportedly died from wounds to his head and legs. It was unclear whether he was hit in a Nato air strike on a convoy fleeing Sirte, a firefight on the ground, or in concrete tunnels in the town itself. Later, Libya's UK representative said Gaddafi was alive when captured and had died in an ambulance on the way to the city of Misrata.

The Libyan prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, told a news conference in Tripoli: "We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Muammar Gaddafi has been killed." A US official said Libyan leaders had confirmed his death to Washington, the AP agency reported at 3.15pm UK time. In London, the Libyan charge d'affaires, Mahmud Nacua, told a press conference it was "a glorious and momentous victory". "Today, Libya's future begins. Gaddafi's black era has come to an end for ever," he said. "The Libyan people are looking forward to a very promising future where they can finally start building the free democratic state for which they have fought for about eight months now. "Our people have paid a high price. About 40,000 martyrs have given their lives for the freedom of their country. "We very much appreciate the help of the international community to get rid of Gaddafi and his crimes." Earlier, pictures showing what was said to be the body of the dead and bleeding Gaddafi appeared on television as Nato and US officials tried to confirm his death. Some showed the body being dragged through the streets of Sirte.

Gaddafi's son Muatassim was also reported to have been killed or captured in Sirte, the stronghold of pro-Gaddafi forces. Later, he was said to have been seen covered in blood but alive. Another son, Saif al-Islam, was said to be have been surrounded after fleeing Sirte. Gaddafi's body was reportedly transferred to Misrata. A large crowd surrounded the vehicle as it arrived, chanting: "The blood of the martyrs will not go in vain". The first reports of Gaddafi's capture came soon after noon UK time, and within an hour there were claims that he was dead. The convoy in which Gaddafi might have been travelling was hit by a Nato airstrike at 6am British time. Two Nato aircraft bombed the vehicles as they fled Sirte. Neither were British planes, although two Tornado ground attack aircraft were on surveillance and reconnaissance missions at the time. A National Transitional Council (NTC) official, Abdel Majid Mlegta, told Reuters. "There was a lot of firing against his group and he died." The NTC spokesman in Misrata, Abdullah Berrassali, told Sky News: "Gaddafi is dead, absolutely dead.

He was shot in both legs and a bullet in the head. The body will be arriving in Misrata any minute now." Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said that, if the reports were true, she would breathe a sigh of relief as one more obstacle was removed. Even before confirmation that Gaddafi, who ruled Libya for 42 years, was dead, Senator John McCain, who lost to Barack Obama in the last presidential election, called it "an end to the first phase of the Libyan revolution". Gaddafi was wanted by the international criminal court on charges of ordering the killing of civilians. He was at one time believed to be hiding deep in the Sahara desert. His wife, two sons and a daughter fled to neighbouring Algeria shortly after Tripoli fell to rebel forces in August. On Wednesday, a day before his death, Gaddafi was said by Jibril to have been recruiting fighters from other countries in an effort to destabilise the regime that replaced him. David Cameron said he was proud of the role Britain had played in Gaddafi's downfall.

"I think today is a day to remember all of Colonel Gaddafi's victims, from those who died in connection with the Pan-Am flight over Lockerbie to Yvonne Fletcher in a London street and obviously all the victims of IRA terrorism who died through their use of Libyan Semtex," he said. "We should also remember the many, many Libyans who died at the hands of this brutal dictator and his regime. People in Libya today have an even greater chance, after this news, of building themselves a strong and democratic future. "I'm proud of the role that Britain has played in helping them to bring that about and I pay tribute to the bravery of the Libyans who have helped to liberate their country. We will help them, we will work with them, and that is what I want to say today." Jim Swire, whose daughter, Flora, died in the Lockerbie bombing, said an "opportunity has been lost" to find out the truth about the atrocity.

He told Sky News: "There is much still to be resolved about that issue and Gaddafi, whether he was involved or not, might have been able to clear up a few points about that … now that he is dead, we may have lost an opportunity for getting nearer to the truth. "Although we have not a scrap of evidence that Gaddafi himself was involved in causing the Lockerbie atrocity, my take on that was that he would have at least known who was. "I would have loved to have seen Gaddafi appear in front of the international criminal court, both to answer charges against his gross treatment of his own people and of citizens murdered abroad by his thugs." Russia's presidential envoy to Libya warned that Gaddafi's death might not end the fighting in Libya. "Today's problem of Libya is not the problem of Gaddafi's life or death," Mikhail Margelov said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.

"This is a problem of consolidating fragmented Libyan society and of strengthening the armed forces." Muammar Gaddafi Killed, Captured In Sirte: (GRAPHIC VIDEO) | The Huffington Post Muammar Gaddafi Killed, Captured In Sirte: (GRAPHIC VIDEO) 10/20/2011 08:00 am ET | Updated Dec 20, 2011 25k AP/The Huffington Post [CLICK HERE FOR LIVE UPDATES] There were confusing reports of Gaddafi's capture and death, and questions remained over exactly how he was killed. Arab broadcasters showed graphic images of the balding, goateed Gaddafi – wounded, with a bloodied face and shirt – but alive. Later video showed fighters rolling Gaddafi's lifeless body over on the pavement, stripped to the waist and a pool of blood under his head. While he was still alive, the fighters drove him around lying on the hood of a truck, perhaps to parade him in public. One fighter held him down, pressing on his thigh with a pair of shoes in a show of contempt.

Standing upright, he is shoved along a Sirte road by fighters who chanted "God is great." Gaddafi appears to struggle against them, stumbling and shouting as the fighters push him onto the hood of a pickup truck. "We want him alive. We want him alive," one man shouted before Gaddafi is dragged away, some fighters pulling his hair, toward an ambulance. Most accounts agreed Gaddafi had been holed up with heavily armed supporters in the last few buildings held by regime loyalists in the Mediterranean coastal town, furiously battling revolutionary fighters. The battle for Sirte has been raging for more than a month. At one point, a convoy tried to flee and was hit by NATO airstrikes, carried out by French warplanes. France's Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said the 80-vehicle convoy was carrying Gaddafi and was trying to escape the city. The strikes stopped the convoy but did not destroy it, and then revolutionary fighters moved in on the vehicle carrying Gaddafi. One fighter who said he was at the battle told AP Television News that the final fight took place at an opulent compound. Adel Busamir said the convoy tried to break out but after being hit, it turned back and re-entered the compound. Several hundred fighters attacked.

"We found him there," Busamir said of Gaddafi. "We saw them beating him (Gaddafi) and someone shot him with a 9mm pistol ... then they took him away." Military spokesman Col. Ahmed Bani in Tripoli told Al-Jazeera TV that a wounded Gaddafi "tried to resist (revolutionary forces) so they took him down." Fathi Bashaga, spokesman for the Misrata military council, whose forces were involved in the battle, said fighters encircled the convoy and exchanged fire. In one vehicle, they found Gaddafi, wounded in the neck, and took him to an ambulance. "What do you want?" Gaddafi asked the approaching revolutionaries, Bashaga said, citing witnesses. Gaddafi bled to death from his wounds a half-hour later, he said. Fighters said he died in the ambulance en route to Misrata, 120 miles from Sirte. Abdel-Jalil Abdel-Aziz, a doctor who accompanied the body in the ambulance and examined it, said Gaddafi died from two bullet wounds – to the head and chest. "You can't imagine my happiness today. I can't describe my happiness," he told The Associated Press. "The tyranny is gone.

Now the Libyan people can rest." In the United States, President Obama addressed the death of Gaddafi in a press conference. "The Transitional National Council informed the United States of Gaddafi's death shortly before Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril's announcement to his nation that the moment so many had waited for had come, a U.S. official said. The White House and State Department were expected to release official responses later Thursday," Obama said, according to the Associated Press . "You have won your revolution," he continued , "One of the world's longest-serving dictators is no more." In Tripoli, celebrations are already underway with gunfire and honking. "We've heard quite a lot of celebratory gunfire," Caroline Hawley reports for the BBC . Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Libya on Tuesday to offer a new aid package. She told students during a gathering in Tripoli, "We hope [Gaddafi] can be captured or killed soon so that you don't have to fear him any longer." Gaddafi was ousted from power in August, and his whereabouts have been unknown for months. The Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, accused Libya's former ruler of crimes against humanity.

Reuters is also reporting that an official from the National Transitional Council, Libya's interim government, has confirmed the death of Abu Bakr Yunis Jabr, Gaddafi's Minister of Defense. This is a breaking news update, further information will be added as it becomes available. Below, follow live updates: Gaddafi killed in hometown, Libya eyes future | Reuters Thu Oct 20, 2011 | 7:15 PM EDT Gaddafi killed in hometown, Libya eyes future By Barry Malone | TRIPOLI TRIPOLI NATO is to formally decide on Wednesday whether to end its mission over Libya now that Muammar Gaddafi is dead and buried and the country's new leaders have declared the nation "liberated". The likely decision to end the alliance's patrols over the skies of Libya at the end of the month marks another milestone in what the National Transitional Council (NTC) has pledged will be a road toward democracy and free and fair elections in 2013.

But the deaths of Gaddafi and his son Mo'tassim after both were captured wounded but alive on Thursday and the grisly public display of their decomposing bodies in a Misrata meat locker have made the NTC's Western backers uneasy about Libya's prospects for stable government and respect for the rule of law. Gaddafi and Mo'tassim were buried in a secret desert location on Tuesday to prevent their graves becoming a shrine for any remaining followers in the oil-rich North African state. Under pressure from Western allies, the NTC promised on Monday to investigate how Gaddafi and his son were killed. Mobile phone footage shows both alive after their capture. The former leader was seen being mocked, beaten and abused before he died, in what NTC officials say was crossfire. The treatment of others who supported Gaddafi and fought alongside him was now an issue, said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman. "This is a test. The NTC has repeatedly said that they will distinguish themselves from the Gaddafi regime in terms of the respect of human rights and the rule of law," he told a news conference in Morocco.

"Now is the time for them to begin actions that will help them reinforce these words." RIVALRIES Emerging from 42 years of often brutal one-man rule, many Libyans are savoring the end of eight months of bitter civil war won with NATO's backing and are unconcerned about how Gaddafi met his end and how his body was treated afterwards. "Throw him in a hole, in the sea, in garbage. No matter. He is lower than a donkey or a dog and only foreigners say they care about how we killed him. And they are lying," said engineer Ali Azzarog, 47. Hatred of Gaddafi unified his disparate opponents, who will likely now tussle for power during a planned transition to democracy in a nation riven with regional and tribal rivalries. With economic problems at home, NATO countries are expected to endorse an end to their U.N.-mandated mission in Libya when their ambassadors meet in Brussels on Wednesday after a preliminary decision last week to end it on October 31. "We said that we would consult closely with the United Nations and the NTC and that process of consultations is ongoing," NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said.

Libyan interim Oil and Finance Minister Ali Tarhouni said he wanted NATO to maintain its mission for another month, but hoped for a swift end to United Nations sanctions to free up funds for the interim government to pay salaries and help reconstruction. SAIF ON THE RUN NATO spokeswoman Lungescu declined to say whether NATO might extend the mission. "I don't know whether there is a formal request. All these things remain to be sorted out. But in the end this is a political decision," she said. NATO's Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy, James Appathurai, said he expected the alliance to confirm its decision to end the mission. "I don't expect that there will be a change to that decision, because it is quite clear that the pro-Gaddafi elements no longer have the command and control or other capabilities to pose an organized threat to civilians. That is now finished, and as a result our operation will end," he said. Western military powers have already begun winding down the Libyan mission, and diplomats have said the majority of NATO equipment, including fighter jets, has already been withdrawn.

A NATO statement on Tuesday said operations in the interim would involve intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, although NATO would retain the capability to conduct air strikes if they were needed. The one remaining element from the old order is Gaddafi's sons, the enigmatic Saif al-Islam, who remains on the run. Once viewed as a moderate reformer, he vowed to help his father crush his enemies once the revolt began. An NTC official said Saif al-Islam was in the southern desert near Niger and Algeria and was set to flee Libya using a false passport.

(Reporting by Taha Zargoun in Sirte, Barry Malone and Jessica Donati in Tripoli, Rania El Gamal and Tim Gaynor in Misrata, Christian Lowe, Jon Hemming and Andrew Hammond in Tunis, Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Samia Nakhoul in Dubai, Abdoulaye Massalaatchi in Niamey, Matt Falloon in London, Souhail Karam in Rabat; Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by David Stamp and Ralph Gowling) ADVERTISEMENT Muammar Gaddafi is dead, NTC says - Thursday 20 October 2011 | World news | theguardian.com Muammar Gaddafi is dead, NTC says - Thursday 20 October 2011 Muammar Gaddafi. Photograph: Max Rossi/Reuters 8.45am: Welcome to Middle East Live. Here's a round up of the latest developments.

• A former Syrian vice president who became one of the country's most prominent dissidents was kidnapped in Lebanon five months ago while visiting his daughter and is believed to be secretly imprisoned by the Syrian regime as it tries to crush a 7-month-old uprising, his daughter and Lebanese police said, according to AP. The abduction of Shibli al-Aisamy, an 88-year-old who holds permanent US residency, has raised alarm among some in Lebanon that members of the country's security forces are helping Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime in its crackdown on anti-government protesters, effectively extending it into Lebanon to prevent it from becoming a safe haven for the Syrian Libya • Many of the newly released Palestinian prisoners spent their first full day of freedom being feted at home by streams of well-wishers bearing gifts and flowers. All the prisoners describe their detention as brutal with long periods of solitary confinement. 9.49am: Some residents are returning to Sirte to protect their homes from being looted by forces loyal to the new government, the BBC reports. One returning resident, Mohammed Sayeh, said anti-government forces took a computer, a mobile phone and his passport . He said he came back to stop the house being burnt down.

10.02am: Breaking: AP is reporting that Sirte has fallen. Witnesses: Libyan fighters overrun last positions of Gadhafi loyalists in Sirte, city falls. 10.05am: Government forces have captured the last remaining Gaddafi positions in Sirte, Reuters confirms, citing frontline commanders. 10.16am: AP has more details on the fall of Sirte: Libyan fighters have overrun the last positions of Gaddafi loyalists holding out in the city of Sirte and the revolutionaries now have all of the ousted leader's hometown within their hands. Reporters on the scene say the final push to capture the remaining pro-Gadhafi positions began around 8am on Thursday and was over after about 90 minutes. Just before the assault, about five carloads of loyalists tried to flee the enclave down the coastal highway but were killed by revolutionaries. Revolutionaries began searching homes and buildings looking for any Gaddafi fighters who may be hiding there. Reuters has quotes from commanders: "Sirte has been liberated. There are no Gaddafi forces any more," said Colonel Yunus Al Abdali, head of operations in the eastern half of the city.

"We are now chasing his fighters who are trying to run away." Another front line commander confirmed the capture of the Mediterranean coastal city, which was the last remaining significant bastion of pro-Gaddafi fighters almost three months after the ex-leader was overthrown by rebels. 10.22am: Mahmoud Jibril, Libya's Interim Leader, has hinted that he may step down as soon as today. In an interview with Time magazine's Vivienne Walt, Jibril described the frustrations of Libya's political power struggle. He sadi: "We have moved into a political struggle with no boundaries. The political struggle requires finances, organisation, arms and ideologies. I am afraid I don't have any of this." Walt writes: Jibril, who heads the executive board of the rebels' National Transitional Council, did not say exactly when he would resign, but hinted that it could be as soon as Thursday, when a televised meeting of his group would detail what it had accomplished since Gaddafi's ouster, he said. In a grim assessment of Libya's current state, Jibril suggested that as the war dragged on, he had found governing the country was increasingly difficult.

10.35am: There are reports that some Gaddafi loyalists are continuing to fight in Sirte. Barry Malone a Reuters journalist tweets: Hearing some Gaddafi supporters still taking potshots in Sirte #Libya Blake Hounshell from Foreign Policy magazine: There's still a Gaddafi convoy west of Sirte, AJA reports , and clashes ongoing. Any big names in it, I wonder? BBC reporter Peter Biles: The network is now confirming that Sirte has fallen. It also reports that one of Gaddafi's cousins, Ahmed Ibrahim, was arrested trying to flee Sirte in that convoy. Ibrahim was responsible for education under the Gaddafi regime. 11.22am: Reuters has more on the hoisting of the government flag in Sirte: Libyan interim government fighters hoisted the new national flag above the centre of Sirte on Thursday after completing their capture of Muammar Gaddafi 's home town, the last serious pocket of resistance by loyalists of the ousted leader. A Reuters witness said celebratory gunfire broke out among National Transitional Council forces as the flag was raised above a large utilities building in the Mediterranean city, which had been under NTC siege for nearly two months.

11.35am: Tripoli residents have been warned not to start firing in celebration at the fall of Sirte, BBC producer Jonny Hallam reports. People in #Tripoli have been told not to fire guns in celebration or will be arrested. #Libya #Sirte Tripoli resident Ali Tweel Aries tweets: 12.01pm: We may have spoken too soon about Nato's involvement in Sirte. Al Jazeera's Evan Hill tweets: 12.07pm: Please treat the following with lots of caution, but the Misrata Military Council is reporting that Gaddafi himself has been arrested. This is not confirmed. In an email the Information Centre for the Misrata Military Council said: Now in contact with our correspondent at the front of the Sirte. The tyrant Muammar Gaddafi Was arrested. God is great and thank God 12.15pm: A Libyan TV station has reportedly just announced that Muammar Gaddafi has been captured. The report cannot be confirmed at this stage. Mahmoud Shammam, the NTC's information minister. was just on al-Jazeera, and alluded to the capture of Gaddafi but refused to confirm it.

He said: I think we can say that Sirte is liberated ...I think the celebrations are going on right now. Also there's big talk about some big fish on their way to Misrata. I cannot confirm anything but people over there are talking they caught a big fish. Asked what would happen if Gaddafi had been captured, Shammam said: We are going to put him in fornt of the court, we're not going to hang him in the street. We are going to give him the fair trial he never gave the Libyan people. We hope that we are catching some big names so we can put them in the court and let the people have the last word on their fate ...I think every Libyan wants to see Gaddafi stand trial. 12.18pm: An NTC official has told al-Jazeera that Gaddafi has been captured and was wounded while being detained. There is still no independent verification available. 12.22pm: Reuters is quoting NTC official Abdel Majid as saying Gaddafi has been wounded in both legs.

12.32pm: The Libyan immigration minister, Ali Errishi, has just told al-Jazeera that he has spoken to fighters who have told him Gaddafi has been captured, along with his spokesman Moussa Ibrahim. But still we await independent confirmation. Errishi said Gaddafi is wounded, adding: He is, as we speak, in the custody of the freedom fighters ....I'm very, very confident [in my sources] ...They would not have woken me up early in the morning all the way from Misrata, I am in [Washington] DC [if it was not true]. Al-Jazeera is reporting that Nato forces fired on the convoy, although that report is also unconfirmed. 12.37pm: Reuters is quoting a Libyan government fighter who says he witnessed the capture of Gaddafi. He said the ousted dictator was hiding in a hole shouting "Don't shoot, don't shoot". Al-Jazeera is reporting that he is in a critical condition. But the picture remains confused.

12.44pm: The Associated Press news agency says the chief spokesman for the National Transitional Council, Jalal el-Gallal, and the NTC's military spokesman, Abdul-Rahman Busin, say that reports of Gaddafi's capture are still unconfirmed. 12.45pm: According to Sky News, the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, is calling the capture of Gaddafi good news. Sky News is now saying its sources are confirming the capture. We still cannot confirm this. 12.50pm: Here's a summary of the latest developments: • Muammar Gaddafi has been captured fleeing Sirte, according to unconfirmed reports by some National Transitional Council officials. The NTC's information minister, Mahmoud Shamman, refused to confirm the reports, but said "big fish" are on their way to Misrata. Gaddafi is reported to have been critically injured in both legs while being detained. "Don't shoot, don't shoot," he is reported to have said. We cannot confirm that he has been captured. • A number of high ranking Gaddafi officials are also reported to have been caught including his spokesman Moussa Ibrahim and his cousin Ahmed Ibrahim.

"We hope that we are catching some big names so we can put them in the court and let the people have the last word on their fate," Shamman said. • Reports of the arrests came after the fall of Gaddafi's final stronghold of Sirte. The city was captured after a 90 minute offensive this morning. Fighters hoisted flags of the new interim government over the city and burned the green flag of the ousted Gaddafi regime. "Sirte has been liberated. There are no Gaddafi forces any more," said Colonel Yunus Al Abdali. • Mahmoud Jibril, Libya's Interim Leader, has hinted that he may step down today. In an interview with Time magazine he also complained about political infighting in the new Libya. 12.53pm: Al Jazeera is now reporting that Gaddafi was killed in Sirte. Reuters is saying that Gaddafi died of his wounds. We cannot confirm this. 1.01pm: My colleague Chris Stephen has seen a statement on the arrest of Gaddafi - which we still cannot confirm - from Misrata military council.

The statement said: "The tyrant Muammar Gaddafi Was arrested on by Misurata Thwarr [revolutionary fighters]." It added: "God is great and thank God." Chris writes: Hassan Elamin, a prominent Libyan exile who has lived for 28 years in the UK and is the editor of the online Libyan newspaper Libya Almostakbal said he had called Misrata today and that Gaddafi was reportedly being held in Misrata, Libya's third largest city. He said the city was in the middle of wild celebrations. "We're still taking in the news," he told the Guardian. "This is a big buzz." Elamin said Gaddafi was arrested by Misratan units in Sirte late last night and reportedly transported to a secure location in the city and that in the same arrest Gaddafi's former defence minister Abu Bakr Yunis was shot dead. What happens to Gaddafi now is unclear. Misrata military council is on record as stating that it recognises the authority of the ruling National Transitional Council but does not accept its commands.

Earlier this year Misratan war crimes investigators told the Observer they had complied evidence against Gaddafi including documents purportedly showing his forces being ordered to commit war crimes during the siege of Misrata. 1.02pm: Here's the Reuters tweet announcing Gaddafi's death , which we cannot confirm: FLASH: Libya's Gaddafi dies of wounds suffered in capture near Sirte - senior NTC military official 1.08pm: Sky News is reporting live from Tripoli, where there is a cacophony of celebration behind its reporter, with car horns beeping non-stop. 1.08pm: The US state department cannot confirm Gaddafi's capture, never mind his reported killing. Reuters reports: "We've seen the media reports but can't confirm them," state department spokeswoman Beth Gosselin told Reuters. White House officials were not immediately available to comment. The Pentagon also said it could not confirm the reports. A senior official with Libya's National Transitional Council told Reuters that Gaddafi was captured near his hometown of Sirte at dawn as he tried to flee in a convoy that came under attack from Nato warplanes. Nato said it was checking reports of the capture of Gaddafi and said they could take some time to confirm. .

1.52pm: An NTC soldier is telling Sky News: "Somebody shot him with a 9mm." Another soldier says he was shot in the belly. This happened at 12.30, the soldiers say - but it is unclear if they mean am or pm. Former defence minister Abu Bakr Yunis was the only one with him, the soldier says. The other soldier says he saw it with his own eyes and that he hit Gaddafi with a shoe - a sign of severe disrespect in the Middle East. None of this can be confirmed yet, and I have to say they were not the most convincing witnesses. BBC World's Naveena Kottor : NTC's Kenshill on BBCWorld "Very reliable sources :#Gaddafi & 3 aides were killed in District 2 during the fight in #Sirte. #Libya #Tripoli 2.13pm: Libyan NTC information minister Mahmoud Shammam said he has confirmed that Gaddafi was killed, citing fighters who said they saw the body. He said he expected the NTC chairman Mustafa Abdul-Jalil to confirm the death soon, noting that past reports emerged "before making 100% confirmation".

"Our people in Sirte saw the body ... Mustafa Abdul-Jalil will confirm it soon," he told the Associated Press. "Revolutionaries say Gaddafi was in a convoy and that they attacked the convoy." Jalil is due to speak soon. 2.15pm: There is mobile phone footage of the moment Gaddafi was captured, showing him alive, according to Al Jazeera. It also reports that Gaddafi's son Mutassim has been caught alive. 2.18pm: Reuters is claiming that a Libyan NTC military official has confirmed the photo we published earlier is of Muammar Gaddafi. Reuters is also saying that Gaddafi's corpse has arrived in Misrata, citing Al-Arabiya TV. Al-Arabiya says the media will be allowed to film the body. We cannot confirm either point. 2.22pm: Confusion still surrounds the status of Gaddafi and several senior figures of his regime. Here's what is being said: Muammar Gaddafi A number of NTC officials have said that he has been killed. The interim Libyan president, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, is expected to confirm his death soon.

Abu Bakr Yunis, former defence minister Killed during the attack on Gaddafi's convoy, according to NTC official. Mutassim Gaddafi, Muammar's son Captured, according to NTC official official Abdel Majid Mlegta. Abd Allah al-Sanusi, senior Libyan intelligence chief Captured, according to pro-NTC Libya TV. Ahmed Ibrahim, Gaddafi's cousin and adviser Captured, according to Mlegta. Mansour Daw, Gaddafi aide Captured, according to pro-NTC Libya TV. The BBC is also saying that three unnamed aides were killed alongside Gaddafi. However, a soldier said only Yunis was with Gaddafi. 2.26pm: Sky News is reporting that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, Gaddafi's most high-profile son, is still at large in the southern Libyan desert. We cannot confirm this. 2.33pm: Our interactive map shows the progress of anti-Gaddafi fighters through the fallen dictator's hometown. Did Gaddafi try to flee the closing stages of the fighting?

2.35pm: This incomprehensible tweet from al-Arabiya really sums up the confusion of today's reports : Conflicting news reports over #Gaddafi son Seif Al Islam's capture after the death of Muammar Gaddafi has been verified by the NTC 2.38pm: On the Daily Telegraph's live blog , reporter Ben Farmer says he has has been to the site in Sirte where Gaddafi was reportedly captured. He says Gaddafi was "cornered in a drain underneath a road in open countryside to the west of the city of Sirte". Gaddafi's vehicles tried to get out of the town, were hit by a Nato airstrike, and Gaddafi and several bodyguards took refuge in a drain, where they were found by NTC fighters. The Telegraph blog has an AFP picture of the drain . 2.40pm: The Libyan ambassador to London is being interviewed on Sky News. He says he is sure Gaddafi is dead. The BBC is reporting that Mutassim Gaddafi, Muammar's son, was found dead in Sirte on Thursday, citing the NTC. Contemptible Gaddafi. Gaddafi of course called the rebels rats throughout their uprising against him.

3.09pm: Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, while not confirming Gaddafi's death, has said: "If they [the NTC] know that he is no longer a threat to them I think that will actually ease the transition process to a new government." 3.09pm: "For his own long-suffering people, Gaddafi will be remembered as a tyrant, a dictator plain and simple," says our Middle East editor Ian Black. Speaking on his way from Tunisia to Libya , Ian said: Gaddafi will be remembered as a slightly strange, flamboyant figure on the world stage. In the west we got into the habit of thinking that because he wore silly uniforms and was a bit of buffoon, then he was in some ways a fun figure. Libyans see him rather differently. He was to all intents and purposes a dictator .. Most people will be glad and relieved that his is gone. People in Tripoli from the National Transitional Council are jubilant at the news, and are confirming that Gaddafi is indeed dead. He was killed apparently in the last stages of the fight in Sirte. There is a mood of tremendous excitement.

It is obviously a hugely important day for the Libyan revolution and will echo loudly across the Arab world. The death of Muammar Gaddafi, who ruled Libya for nearly 42 years, is a very big deal indeed. Gaddafi and his son Saif al-Islam and his intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi, were of course wanted by the international criminal court in the Hague on charges for crimes against humanity. The fact that he's been killed, assuming it's true, means there will be no such trial. In a sense [the new government] will find it easier to deal with a Gaddafi who has been killed in combat, rather than a Gaddafi who would have been defiant in any court. The preferred outcome is the one that seems to have come about. His sons are less important, Ian says. But there will be attention now on the fate and whereabouts of Saif al-Islam, his most high-profile son. There was never any inkling that Muammar Gaddafi was in Sirte. Another of his sons, Mutassim, was reported to be there, but I don't believe it has ever been publicly [reported] that Gaddafi the father was in Sirte.

That is a significant and surprising new element of today's developments. The conventional wisdom was that he was on the run, hiding somewhere in the Sahara desert. There was some apparent evidence of that. Perhaps Gaddafi's presence helps explain the ferocity of the fighting we have seen in Sirte. 3.14pm: Human Rights Watch said Gaddafi's alleged war crimes should still be investigated, even if he has been killed today. Richard Dickler, director of the the organisation's international justice programme, said: Reports of Muammar Gaddafi's death, if accurate, deprive the Libyan people of the chance to see him held to account in a fair trial at the ICC [international criminal court] for the egregious crimes he allegedly committed while suppressing peaceful demonstrations in February 2011. However, his demise does not extinguish the need to bring to trial those most responsible for serious crimes against humanity and war crimes in Libya to fair trial in The Hague. There are outstanding arrest warrants for two other suspects. In addition, we look to the ICC prosecutor to investigate allegations of other crimes against humanity and war crimes in Libya. The prosecutor's mandate enables him to look at possible crimes committed by all sides in the armed conflict.

3.16pm: The Associated Press news agency is reporting that Libyan leaders have told the US Gaddafi is dead, according to US officials. @ ShababLibya , the Twitter account for the Libyan youth movement, is urging people in London to congregate on the Edgware Road, the most famous haunt for Arabs in the capital, at 6pm BST to celebrate the death of Gaddafi. 3.27pm: Sky is quoting the Libyan prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, as saying: We've been waiting for this moment a long time. Muammar Gaddafi has been killed. 3.30pm: NTC official Abdel Ghoga has been speaking at a news conference. He says he wants to announce the end of tyranny and dictatorship in Libya. It will never happen again. The revolutionaries have got the head of the tyrant. He has met the fate of all tyrants, Ghoga says. "We will announce to the world that Muammar Gaddafi has been killed at the hands of the revolutionaries." Gaddafi's dictatorship has been ended, he says. 3.32pm: Muammar Gaddafi is dead, the NTC has just announced.

But, perhaps not surprisingly given the pace at which events have moved today, his colleague, Linsey Hilsum, international editor at Channel 4 News, contradicts him : Jibril says fighters engaged with armed convoy believed to include #Seif al #Gadaffi Michael Collins Dunn, from the Washington-based Middle East Institute, describes Gaddafi's death as the Arab Spring's "Ceausescu moment" . The peaceful overthrow of long-standing Presidents in Egypt and Tunisia made the so-called "Arab spring" look like a genuinely benign, if not quite bloodless, transformation. But just as the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe in the early 1990s was largely bloodless, there was the exception of Rumania, where Nicolae Ceausescu met with a bloody end. The long, hard civil war in Libya made it a likely candidate for a Ceausescu-type ending. 3.39pm: In London Libyan charge d'affaires Mahmud Nacua is giving a press conference. He confirmed that Gaddafi is dead. He said: Today the Libyan NTC fighters achieved a glorious and momentous victory against the tyranny of Muammar Gaddafi, his sons and cronies ...

Today we are told that Gaddafi is dead. The Libyan freedom fighters have finally succeeded in drawing the curtain on Gaddafi's crimes. Today Libya's future begins. Gaddafi's black era has come to an end for ever. The Libyan people are looking forward to a very promising future where they can finally start building the free democratic state for which they have fought for about eight months now. Our people have paid a high price. About 40,000 martyrs have given their lives for the freedom of their country. We very much appreciate the help of the international community to get rid of Gaddafi and his crimes. Asked whether it would have been better to have put Gaddafi on trial, he said: It is now Gaddafi's fate; he has faced his fate and it is not [an] important matter if he is alive or dead. The final thing, the good thing: we get rid of Gaddafi and his crimes. The next step: we look forward to building a new Libya as a state of law. He said Mustafa Abndul Jalil would give a statement tonight announcing the liberation of the whole country.

When the coutnry is "Stable" all the files relating to Lockerbie and Gaddafi's other crimes will be opened up to the world, he said. 3.46pm: David Cameron just made a statement at Downing Street, saying the Libyan government had confirmed that Gaddafi was dead. He said we should remember the victims of Lockerbie, PC Yvonne Fletcher, and IRA victims killed with semtex provided by Gaddafi's Libya, as well as all the Libyans killed over the last several months. Today is a day to remember the victims. He said he was proud of the role Britian had played in allowing Libya to move towards a democratic future. 3.49pm: WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT. Mobile phone footage claiming to show the dead body of Gaddafi's defence minister, Abu Bakr Yunis, has been broadcast by al-Jazeera Arabic. NTC officials report that Yunis was killed during an attack on a convoy of Gaddafi loyalists. 3.51pm: John McCain, the former US presidential candidate and foreign policy specialist in the Senate, has, urged the US to become more involved in helping Libya.

The death of Muammar Gaddafi marks an end to the first phase of the Libyan revolution. While some final fighting continues, the Libyan people have liberated their country. Now the Libyan people can focus all of their immense talents on strengthening their national unity, rebuilding their country and economy, proceeding with their democratic transition, and safeguarding the dignity and human rights of all Libyans. The United States, along with our European allies and Arab partners, must now deepen our support for the Libyan people, as they work to make the next phase of their democratic revolution as successful as the fight to free their country. 3.59pm: My colleague Stuart Millar writes that CNN just ran a video of Hillary Clinton, the American secretary of state, being given the news about Gaddafi in Pakistan. An aide handed her a BlackBerry, she squinted at it, her eyes widened and then she said: "Wow!" 4.00pm: Here's a summary of events so far on a momentous day. • Muammar Gaddafi, who ruled Libya from 1969 until August this year, has been killed by forces loyal to the country's new government.

• Gaddafi, 69, was reportedly found hiding in a drain outside Sirte, where he and and others had taken shelter after their convoy was hit by a Nato airstrike as it attempted to escape. • Graphic video and pictures of the dead dictator have been released. His body was apparently dragged through the streets of Sirte. An NTC spokesman said Gaddafi was shot in the head and in both legs. • Gaddafi was alive when captured and died in an ambulance on the way to Misrata, according to the NTC's UK representative. • Abu Bakr Yunis, the former Libyan defence minister, was killed in the attack on the former dictator's compound, according to the NTC. • Confusion surrounds the fate of other members of Gaddafi's family and inner circle. An NTC representative said up to 17 senior members of the Gaddafi regime have been apprehended or killed. There have been reports that his sons Mutassim Gaddafi and Saif al-Islam have been killed but other reports say Mutassim has been captured alive and that al-Islam has fled.

• Gaddafi's spokesman Moussa Ibrahim and the late dictator's cousin and adviser Ahmed Ibrahim have been captured, according to NTC official Abdel Majid Mlegta. Libya TV, a pro-NTC channel, said that Abd Allah al-Sanusi, a senior Libyan intelligence chief, and Mansour Daw, a Gaddafi aide, were also captured. 4.04pm: More news about Gaddafi's sons: Mutassim is reported to be injured but captured. Saif al-Islam is said to be under attack after fleeing Sirte. Here is the mobile phone footage in full that purports to show Muammar Gaddafi's body in the streets of Sirte. 4.19pm: Here are the full quotes from British prime minister David Cameron, who along with French president Nicolas Sarkozy was one of the early champions of the uprising against Gaddafi and the need for Nato intervention: I think today is a day to remember all of Colonel Gaddafi's victims, from those who died in connection with the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, to Yvonne Fletcher in a London street, and obviously all the victims of IRA terrorism who died through their use of Libyan semtex.

We should also remember the many, many Libyans who died at the hands of this brutal dictator and his regime. People in Libya today have an even greater chance after this news of building themselves a strong and democratic future. I am proud of the role that Britain has played in helping them to bring that about and I pay tribute to the bravery of the Libyans who helped to liberate their country. We will help them, we will work with them and that is what I want to say today. Thank you. 4.33pm: The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, has just given his reaction: This day marks a historic transition for Libya. In the coming days we will witness scenes of celebration as well as grief for those who have lost so much. But I recognise that this is only the end of the beginning. The road ahead for Libya will be difficult and full of challenges. Libyans can only realise the promise of the future ...through reconciliation ...This is a time for healing ... not for revenge ... Inclusion and pluralism must be the watchwords. All Libyans must be able to recognise themselves in the nation's government and leadership ... A new UN mission to Libya is on the ground and ready to assist Libya.

4.42pm: The heir to the Libyan throne has spoken out to say that the death of Muammar Gaddafi was a victory for peace, freedom and reform. When Gaddafi took power in 1969 he overthrew Libya's King Idris and the old flag of the Kingdom of Libya has become a symbol of the NTC rebellion. Today Mohammed El Senussi, considered by Libyan royalists to be the heir to the old Libyan throne, issued a statement saying: The flag of freedom is now flying in Sirte and across Libya on this historic day. People throughout Libya took up arms just eight months ago and in that short time they have been united in their resolve to rid the country of evil … The new Libya must be organised under the rule of law and there is no greater time than right now to demonstrate that commitment by ensuring there are no acts of vengeance against Gaddafi's supporters and that justice is dealt with by the courts. Today begins a new chapter in our history. I look forward now with confidence that the people of Libya will build a future we can all be proud of.

Now is the time to put freedom and the sanctity of life at the heart of our society and to put the era of terror and oppression behind us. Senussi, who is based in London, was asked on a previous occasion about the prospect of re-establishing the monarchy in Libya. He reportedly said that he "is a servant to Libyan people, and they decide what they want". 4.43pm: Nato commanders are recommending the Libya air campaign should now be brought to an end, my colleague Julian Borger tells me. The formal decision will be taken tomorrow by the North Atlantic Council, representing Nato member states. Julian just received this comment from a Nato official. A military assessment of the current situation in Libya and a recommendation for the wrapping up of the Nato operation is on its way to Nato HQ. This will most likely prompt a special meeting of the North Atlantic Council tomorrow to consider the recommendation and decide on the future of the current mission. 5.00pm: This blog is ending, but our live coverage will continue here .

Here's a summary of events today: • Muammar Gaddafi, who ruled Libya from 1969 until August this year, has been killed by forces loyal to the country's new government. The Libyan government has confirmed his death. Gaddafi 69, was reportedly found hiding in a drain outside Sirte, where he and and others had taken shelter after their convoy was hit by a Nato airstrike as it attempted to escape. A spokesman for the National Tranisitional Council – Libya's ruling body – said Gaddafi was alive when captured but died in an ambulance on the way to hospital. • Confusion surrounds the fate of other members of Gaddafi's family and inner circle. An NTC representative said up to 17 senior members of the Gaddafi regime have been apprehended or killed. There have been reports that his sons Mutassim Gaddafi and Saif al-Islam have been killed but other reports say Mutassim has been captured alive and that al-Islam has fled. • Gaddafi's spokesman Moussa Ibrahim and the late dictator's cousin and adviser Ahmed Ibrahim have been captured, according to NTC official Abdel Majid Mlegta.

Abu Bakr Yunis, the former Libyan defence minister, was killed in the attack on the former dictator's compound, according to the NTC. Libya TV, a pro-NTC channel, said that Abd Allah al-Sanusi, a senior Libyan intelligence chief, and Mansour Daw, a Gaddafi aide, were also captured. • Graphic video and pictures of the dead dictator have been released. His body was apparently dragged through the streets of Sirte. An NTC spokesman said Gaddafi was shot in the head and in both legs. The footage appears to show Gaddafi's body being transported through Sirte. He has blood around his chest and face. Colonel Gaddafi 'is killed' in gun battle « Express & Star PUBLISHED: October 20, 2011 12:26 pm LAST UPDATED: October 20, 2011 3:55 pm Colonel Gaddafi 'is killed' in gun battle Colonel Gaddafi was this afternoon reported to have been killed as his home town was finally overrun. Colonel Gaddafi was this afternoon reported to have been killed as his home town was finally overrun.

The toppled Libyan leader was said to have been targeted in his hometown of Sirte as his convoy came under fire from a Nato air strike. A conflicting report came from a soldier who told reporters that the 69-year-old dictator had been hiding in a hole with a golden pistol and had shouted “Don’t shoot” when confronted. British officials were this afternoon looking into the reports, some of which said he had been injured in the head and legs. This afternoon a picture supposedly showing gaddafi’s bloodied body was broadcast on state TV. But in a statement on National Transitional Council-controlled state television, a presenter draped in the flag of liberated Libya said: “Gaddafi personally is in the hands of the rebels. We have captured Gaddafi. Libya is joyous, Libya is celebrating, Libya has given a lesson to all those who want to learn. You have captured this criminal who has killed the mothers of the martyrs.” There were fierce gun battles on the streets of the coastal city of Sirte this morning, bringing an end to a siege which has lasted almost two months since the fall of capital Tripoli to rebel troops in August. Ships sounded their horns and celebratory gunfire rang through the streets as word of the apparant rebel victory spread.

TV broadcasts showed National Transitional Council troops celebrating the fall of Sirte and the apparent demise of Gaddafi, who ruled Libya for 42 years and had been wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. NTC member Hassan Draoua said: “Our forces control the last neighbourhood in Sirte. The city has been liberated.” An NTC spokesman said gaddafi’s body was now in the hands of the rebels. Earlier, Libyan fighters were reported to have overrun the last positions of Gaddafi loyalists holding out in Sirte. Just before the 90-minute assault which is believed to have killed Gaddafi, five carloads of loyalists tried to flee the enclave down the coastal highway but were killed by revolutionaries. Revolutionaries began searching homes and buildings looking for any Gaddafi fighters who may be hiding there. Reporters saw revolutionaries beating captured Gaddafi men in the back of trucks and officers intervening to stop them.

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi: obituary - Telegraph Obituaries Colonel Muammar Gaddafi Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the former Libyan dictator who has been killed aged 69, liked to promote himself as an instigator of global revolution; for the four decades of his rule, however, this was carried out through the subjugation of his people at home, and the sponsorship of terrorism abroad. WikiLeaks: Britain feared Colonel Gaddafi could 'cut us off at the knees' unless Lockerbie bomber was freed Photo: EPA 3:23PM BST 20 Oct 2011 His grip on power always looked solid. But in February 2011 the uprisings in North Africa, which had already seen the fall of the governments of Libya’s neighbours, Egypt and Tunisia, suddenly put his regime in jeopardy. There were demonstrations in all Libya’s principal cities — including the capital, Tripoli. The east of the country, where Gaddafi’s power had always been weakest, saw an enthusiastic, if chaotic, revolt, and the port city of Benghazi fell to the rebels.

Gaddafi loyalists were widely accused of slaughtering civilians as he attempted to reimpose his authority, and with the backing of a UN Security Council resolution, an Allied force which included the Americans, the British and the French imposed a no-fly zone. Allied aircraft neutralised Libya’s air force and prevented Gaddafi’s troops from advancing into Benghazi. Air strikes then began targeting Gaddafi forces all over Libya, as well as the regime’s command and control structures. Critics argued that by effectively acting as the rebel air force, the Allies were grossly overstepping their mandate. But the pattern of the conflict was duly established: Nato aircraft cleared the way for rebels to advance westwards along the coast, Gaddafi loyalists then beat them back. The stop-go nature of the fighting endured for six months, but in August the rebels finally encircled Tripoli, and when they successfully captured the town of Zawiya, with its crucial oil refinery, just 30 miles west of the capital, the resistance of Gaddafi’s forces crumbled. On August 21 the rebels entered Tripoli and battle was soon under way at Gaddafi’s own compound.

Gaddafi, however, was not to be found, and mystery surrounded his whereabouts for a further two months. Some suggested he had fled abroad, perhaps to Niger, but the authorities there denied the rumours. Finally rebels ringed his birthplace of Sirte, on the coast midway between Tripoli and Benghazi. Despite the hopelessness of their position, forces loyal to Gaddafi waged a bitter last stand. Related Articles Col Gaddafi killed: key dates in history of Libya 20 Oct 2011 When rebels finally captured Sirte on October 20, leaked reports of his capture began to circulate. He had been seized while trying to flee, some rebels said, and had been wounded in both legs. Others said he had been found hiding, like the deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein before him, in a hole. NATO confirmed that it had targeted several vehicles, one possibly containing Gaddafi, in an airstrike at 8.30 that morning. Mobile telephone pictures of a bloodied figure resembling the dictator began to circulate on the internet. Finally, reports came through that he was dead. It was a suitably chaotic end for a man who could never be easily pigeonholed.

Erratic, vain and utterly unpredictable, he always seemed to be enjoying a private joke which no one else could see. His image, plastered on walls all over Libya, seemed a parody of Sixties radical chic — the craggy features, longish hair, the eyes half-hidden behind retro blue-tone shades. Gaddafi would arrive at summits of Arab leaders in a white limousine surrounded by a bodyguard of nubile Kalashnikov-toting brunettes. At one non-aligned summit in Belgrade, he turned up with two horses and six camels; the Yugoslavs allowed him to graze the camels in front of his hotel – where he pitched his tent and drank fresh camel milk – but refused to allow him to arrive at the conference on one of his white chargers. Several of the camels ended up in Belgrade zoo.

At an African Union summit in Durban in 2002, his entourage consisted of a personal jet, two Antonov transport aircraft, a container ship loaded with buses, goat carcases and prayer mats, a mobile hospital, jamming equipment that disrupted local networks, $6 million in petty cash, and 400 security guards with associated rocket launchers, armoured cars and other hardware, who nearly provoked a shoot-out with South Africa’s security forces. On his return motorcade through Swaziland, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi, Gaddafi tossed fistfuls of dollars from his car to appreciative crowds, remarking that this way he could be sure they went to the poor. Gaddafi’s political pronouncements were equally outlandish. He told the Algerian regime that it had wasted the one and a half million martyrs who had died in the war against France because it had not continued across North Africa to “liberate” Jerusalem. He once suggested a binational state for Palestinians and Israelis called Isratine.

Under the banner of pan-Arabism, he offered political unity (under his leadership, inevitably) to Syria, Egypt and Sudan (none of which wanted it), then changed tack to pan-Africanism, calling for a united continent (also to be ruled from Tripoli). As a first step, he threw open Libya’s frontiers to all African citizens; the result was that four million, mainly Muslim, Libyans became resentful hosts to at least one and a half million impoverished sub-Saharan migrants. Yet the self-styled “Universal Theorist” and “Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Arab Libyan Popular and Socialist Jamahiriya” was no joke. In the 1970s and 1980s, while other tyrants were content to repress their own people, Gaddafi seemed hell-bent on bringing murder and mayhem to the whole world. After Pam Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie in 1988, leaving 270 dead — the biggest mass murder in British history – a court found two Libyans guilty of planting the bomb on board.

In 1984, WPC Yvonne Fletcher was shot dead in London with a machine gun fired from inside the Libyan embassy. Then there was the bombing of a Berlin discotheque, explosions at Rome and Vienna airports and the bombing of a French airliner over Chad. In addition, Gaddafi sent arms shipments to the IRA, Abu Nidal, and numerous other terrorist organisations and set out to export revolution to his neighbours, perpetuating regional conflicts in Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Chad and Liberia. Domestic opponents — the “running dogs” who opposed his dictatorship — were ruthlessly liquidated. In 1984 bomb attacks on seven Libyan exiles living in Britain left 24 people injured; one Libyan journalist opposed to Gaddafi’s regime was assassinated as he walked past London’s Regent’s Park mosque. In the mid-1980s “taking out Gaddafi” became an American obsession. In 1986, for example, he survived missile attacks ordered by President Reagan – attacks which he claimed had killed his adopted daughter (in fact evidence later emerged to suggest that she remains alive and well). Indeed, for all his madcap behaviour, Gaddafi was no fool.

He survived at least a dozen attempts on his life and remained the longest ruling revolutionary from the Nasserite Sixties. In the 1970s and 1980s he could defy the might of the United States and laugh off UN resolutions, confident that the Arab world, the Third World and the Soviet bloc would back him. But times changed. By the 1990s the Soviet Union was no more, and Arab leaders had had enough of Gaddafi’s troublemaking. As a result, in the late 1990s he made his most audacious move since coming to power: the reinvention of himself as a peace-loving international statesman. In 1999 Libya finally apologised for the shooting of Yvonne Fletcher, and handed over the men suspected of masterminding the Lockerbie bombing for trial. Gaddafi admitted that some of the “liberation” movements he had assisted were not really “liberation” movements at all; it had all been a terrible mistake. In 2004, following a British diplomatic initiative, he publicly renounced Libya’s weapons of mass destruction programme.

With Libya’s proven reserves of 30 billion barrels of oil as bait, it did not take long for Western leaders to bury the past and beat a path to his tent. The British public was treated to the spectacle of Foreign Secretary Jack Straw praising the colonel’s “statesmanlike and courageous” strategy and Prime Minister Tony Blair offering the “hand of partnership” over a glass of camel’s milk. The reasons for Gaddafi’s change of heart aroused much speculation. He had certainly been anxious to end the UN sanctions imposed in 1992, which had crippled his country’s economy. But it was the September 11 attacks that appear to have been the catalyst. Gaddafi was the first Arab leader to condemn the attacks (helpfully suggesting that the United States bomb the safe havens of Islamist militants in London); and the most instantly alert to the implications for his own survival. For Gaddafi came from a generation of revolutionaries that was motivated by Arab nationalism and the “anti-imperialist struggle”, not by religious extremism. Suddenly he found himself threatened not only by America’s assault on the “Axis of Evil”, but also by the underground religious revolutionaries of al-Qaeda. And it was the latter which he saw as the most potent threat.

Muammar Gaddafi was born in a tent near Sirte, Libya, in 1942 (some sources record June 7 as the precise date). He was the youngest child and only son of a nomadic and illiterate Bedouin family of the Gadadfa tribe. It seems to have been the tribal culture and unstructured democracy of Bedouin life that inspired his revolutionary political ideas. He was sent away to school at nine years old and then went to secondary school at Sebha, where – like many other Arab students at the time — he was inspired by Nasser’s call to Arab resurgence through socialism and revolution. Early in his teens he seems to have formed a revolutionary cadre with a group of friends. Imbibing Greek notions of democracy and Islamic notions of equality while studying History at Tripoli University, he went on to the Benghazi Military Academy. In 1966, having reached the rank of colonel, he did signals training with the British Army at Beaconsfield. In September 1969 he led a bloodless coup that overthrew the royal regime of the charming but weak British-backed King Idris.

Libyans were taught that he led the charge not from the turret of a tank, but at the wheel of a blue Volkswagen Beetle. The battered Revolutionary Vehicle came to occupy pride of place in Tripoli’s national museum. Gaddafi was lucky in his timing. Where Nasser in Egypt and the Ba’athists in Iraq and Syria had to struggle against internal opposition and foreign intervention, Gaddafi was able to remove American and British bases and Italian civilians (who were forced to dig up their dead and take them with them) almost without a murmur. World oil supplies were tightening, and he was able to divide the oil companies and enforce nationalisation and higher prices. Henry Kissinger, eager to see a firm anti-communist in position, actually welcomed his arrival. Gaddafi established a Revolutionary Command Council with himself as leader and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Two years later he formed the Arab Socialist Union as the only political party in Libya, though it was not until 1976 that the true nature of his “revolution” became clear.

Changing the country’s name to “Popular Socialist Libyan Arab Jamahiriya”, he implemented his Third Universal Theory of governing laid out in his Green Book (1976), an indigestible jumble of economic and political theories which became the official law of the land. Conventional political institutions, including the government and head of state, were abolished (Gaddafi had no official title), to be replaced by a “direct democracy” of popular congresses served by people’s committees. The result was a system of administrative chaos counterbalanced by a centralised regime of terror and absolute political control. Opportunistic, idealistic and mercurial, Gaddafi launched a series of attempts to take his revolution forward at home and abroad. While his economic policies — banning wages and private ownership — had disastrous results, he remained genuinely popular because oil revenues enabled him to supply even the poorest peasants with education, health care and imported food. Meanwhile, state-controlled media elevated him to the status of demi-God.

“His teeth are naturally immune to stain, so that when he releases a full-blown smile, the naturally white teeth discharge a radiation pregnant with sweet joy and real happiness for those lucky ones who are fortunate to be around him,” fawned the Al Zahf Al Akhdar newspaper. Abroad, though, his campaigns ended in failure. For the first decade he spent most of his time trying to achieve union with Egypt, Tunisia and the Sudan, followed by Morocco, Tunisia, Niger and Chad. All came to nought, as did his failed invasion of Chad in 1972. It may possibly have been in frustration that, in the 1980s, he became such a ready sponsor of anti-Western terrorism. In Libya much was made of Gaddafi’s many cultural achievements. He was the author of a book of allegorical short stories, and the inventor of a car, the Saroukh el-Jamahiriya (Libyan rocket), launched in 1999 on the 30th anniversary of the Libyan revolution. When Tony Blair paid his visit in 2004, the two leaders apparently swapped ideas about their own versions of the “third way”.

Gaddafi illustrated his version by drawing a circle with a dot in the middle, the dot being himself. Libya’s new status in the world was graphically illustrated in August 2009, when the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Al Megrahi, who had been serving life in a Scottish prison and been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, was released from prison by Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish justice minister, ostensibly on “compassionate grounds”. Megrahi returned to Libya to be greeted by scenes of jubilation, with some of the crowd waving the Scottish Saltire. Gaddafi, apparently oblivious of the huge embarrassment he was causing in Scotland, publicly embraced the bomber. In 2000 or thereabouts, Gaddafi himself was said to have contracted cancer. In Libya the question of who would succeed was taboo, but still the subject of intense behind-the-scenes debate, some suggesting that he would hand power to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, his son, who had been groomed to present a moderate image to the West — an image that was swiftly dispelled when his father’s regime came under threat in early 2011.

Muammar Gaddafi had two wives, Fatiha, whom he married in 1968, and Safiya, whom he married in 1969 and with whom he had a daughter and six sons. Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, born 1942, died October 20 2011 | Africa Muammar Gaddafi has been killed after National Transitional Council fighters overran loyalist defences in the toppled Libyan leader's hometown and final stronghold of Sirte. But questions remained on Thursday over the circumstances of Gaddafi's death as footage appeared to show he had been captured alive, following an apparent attempt to flee the besieged coastal city in a convoy which came under fire from French warplanes and a US drone aircraft. Other footage showed Gaddafi's lifeless and bloodied body being dragged along a road. "We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Muammar Gaddafi has been killed," Mahmoud Jibril, the de facto Libyan prime minister, told reporters on Thursday in Tripoli, the capital. Asked what would be done with Gaddafi's body, he said: "It doesn't make any difference, as long as he disappears".

Jibril said Gaddafi had been shot in the head "in crossfire" between his supporters and NTC fighters after his capture. "He was alive up to last moment, until he arrived at hospital" in the city of Misrata, Jibril said. After his death, Gaddafi's body was reportedly transferred to a mosque in the city. Crowds took to the streets of Sirte, Tripoli , Misrata and Benghazi, the eastern city that spearheaded the uprising against Gaddafi's 42-year rule in February, to celebrate the news, with some firing guns and waving Libya's new flag. "I'm so proud now," a Tripoli resident told Al Jazeera."It's a new era. Look to our eyes and you'll see happiness, finally". Son killed One of Gaddafi's sons, Mutassim, was also killed on Thursday, having been hiding with his father, Mahmoud Shammam, Libya's information minister said. Earlier reports had suggested that he had been captured alive but injured. News of Gaddafi's death, weeks after NTC fighters effectively ended his four-decades rule by capturing Tripoli, came shortly after the NTC captured Sirte after weeks of fierce fighting.

Mutassim Gaddafi at the White House in 2009 [Getty] Fighters flashing V for victory took to the streets in pick-ups blaring out patriotic music. "Thank God they have caught this person. In one hour, Sirte was liberated," a fighter said. Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley, reporting from Sirte, said Libyans there were celebrating the beginning of a "new Libya". "This is bringing a form of closure," he said. "Gaddafi stayed true to his words, that he would stay in Libya till the end. "It was surprising to many that he did actually stay here in Sirte - it's taken such a bombardment in the last 13 days. Nothing could survive in here for very long. I think they were starved of food, starved of ammunition, and finally there was nothing to do but to run". French 'warning shot' Gerard Longuet, France's defence minister, said French warplanes had fired a warning shot to stop a convoy of vehicles carrying Gaddafi before he was killed. The convoy of several dozen vehicles "was stopped from progressing as it sought to flee Sirte but was not destroyed by the French intervention," Longuet told reporters.

Libyan fighters then intervened, destroying the vehicles, from which "they took out Colonel Gaddafi," he said. The NTC's Mahmoud Jibril on Gaddafi's death A US defence official told AFP news agency that a US drone along with a French fighter jet had attacked a convoy of vehicles in Libya that the French believed was carrying Gaddafi. In Tripoli, Jibril said he had received unconfirmed reports that Gaddafi's most prominent son, Saif al-Islam, was trying to flee from Sirte but had been tracked down by NTC fighters who were attacking his convoy. Later reports suggested that Saif had been injured and arrested. Footage had emerged earlier in the day of the body of Abu Bakr Younus, Gaddafi's defence minister, who also died in what would become the last stand of the regime he served. Abdul Hakim Al Jalil, commander of the NTC's 11th brigade, said that Moussa Ibrahim, the former spokesman for Gaddafi's fallen government, had been captured near Sirte. Ahmed Ibrahim, a cousin of Gaddafi, was also reportedly captured.

'Historic transition' Reaction from world leaders was swift, US President Barack Obama saying that the Libyan people had won their revolution. "Across the Arab world, citizens have stood up to claim their rights," he said. "Youth are delivering a powerful rebuke to dictatorship. And those leaders who try to deny their dignity will not succeed. "For the region, today's events prove once more that the rule of an iron fist inevitably comes to an end." Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said Gaddafi's death marked "a historic transition for Libya". Live Box 201142012730683527 "In the coming days, we will witness scenes of celebration as well as grief for those who lost so much," Ban said in New York. "Now is the time for all Libyans to come together. Libyans can only realise the promise of the future for national unity and reconciliation." NATO officials said the alliance's governing body would meet on Friday to decide to end the seven-month bombing campaign over Libya. "NATO and our partners have successfully implemented the historic mandate of the United Nations to protect the people of Libya," Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a statement.

"We will terminate our mission in co-ordination with the United Nations and the National Transitional Council. With the reported fall of Bani Walid and Sirte, that moment has now moved much closer". Source: Al Jazeera and agencies Related

Question: In which town was Colonel Gaddafi killed in 2011?
Answer: Sirte