Scenes of jubilation as Gadhafi killed in Libya
Source: Agencies |
October 21, 2011, Friday
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Moammar Gadhafi, who ruled Libya for 42 years until he was ousted by his own people in an uprising that turned into a bloody civil war, was killed yesterday when revolutionary forces overwhelmed his hometown Sirte, the last major bastion of resistance two months after his regime fell.
The 69-year-old Gadhafi is the first leader to be killed in the Arab Spring wave of popular uprisings that swept the Middle East.
"We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Moammar Gadhafi has been killed," Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril told a news conference in Tripoli.
Footage aired on Al-Jazeera television showed Gadhafi was captured wounded but alive in Sirte. The goateed, balding Gadhafi, in a bloodsoaked shirt and his face bloodied, is seen standing upright being pushed along by fighters, and he appears to struggle against them, stumbling and shouting. The fighters push him onto the hood of a pickup truck, before dragging him away.
Later footage showed fighters rolling Gadhafi's body over on the pavement, stripped to the waist and his head bloody.
There were conflicting reports over the circumstance of Gadhafi's last hours.
But most accounts agreed Gadhafi had been barricaded in with his heavily armed loyalists in the last few buildings they held in his Mediterranean coastal hometown of Sirte, furiously battling with revolutionary fighters closing in on them yesterday. At one point, a convoy tried to flee the area and was blasted by NATO airstrikes, but Jibril specified Gadhafi was not killed by the strike.
The body was later paraded through the streets of the nearby city of Misrata on top of a vehicle surrounded by a large crowd chanting, "The blood of the martyrs will not go in vain," according to footage aired on Al-Arabiya television. The fighters who killed Gadhafi are believed to have come from Misrata, a city that suffered a brutal weeks-long siege by Gadhafi's forces during the eight-month long civil war.
Abdel-Jalil Abdel-Aziz, a doctor and part of the medical team that accompanied the body in the ambulance to Misrata, said Gadhafi died from two bullet wounds, to the head and chest.
Celebratory gunfire and cries of "Allahu Akbar" or "God is Great" rang out across Tripoli. Cars honked their horns and people hugged each other. In Sirte, the ecstatic former rebels celebrated the city's fall after weeks of bloody siege by firing endless rounds into the sky, pumping their guns, knives and even a meat cleaver in the air and singing the national anthem.
Sons removed
Libya's information minister said last night that one of Gadhafi's sons, Muatassim, was killed and another, Seif al-Islam, was captured and wounded. The fate of other top figures of Gadhafi's regime remained unknown, but their ability to rally loyalists would be deeply undermined with Gadhafi's loss.
Sirte's fall caps weeks of heavy, street-by-street fighting as revolutionary fighters besieged the city. The final assault began around 8am yesterday and ended about 90 minutes later. Just before the battle, about five carloads of Gadhafi loyalists tried to flee the enclave down the coastal highway that leads out of the city. They were met by gunfire from the revolutionaries, who killed at least 20 of them.
Roland Lavoie, spokesman for NATO's operational headquarters in Naples, Italy, said the alliance's aircraft struck two vehicles of pro-Gadhafi forces yesterday morning "which were part of a larger group maneuvering in the vicinity of Sirte."
The Misrata Military Council, one of the command groups, said its fighters captured Gadhafi. One fighter who said he was at the battle said that the final fight took place at an opulent compound for visiting dignitaries built by Gadhafi's regime. He said the convoy tried to break out but after being hit it turned back and re-entered the compound. Several hundred fighters besieged it.
"We found him there," he said. "We saw them beating him (Gadhafi) and someone shot him with a 9mm pistol ... then they took him away."
Military spokesman Ahmed Bani in Tripoli told Al-Jazeera TV that a wounded Gadhafi "tried to resist so they took him down."
"I assure everyone that this story has ended," he said.
After the battle, revolutionaries searched buildings, looking for any hiding Gadhafi fighters.
At least 16 were captured, along with cases of ammunition and trucks loaded with weapons.
Reporters saw revolutionaries beating captured Gadhafi men in the back of trucks and officers intervening to stop them.
"The city of Sirte has been liberated," said Hassan Draoua, a member of Libya's interim National Transitional Council.
The 69-year-old Gadhafi is the first leader to be killed in the Arab Spring wave of popular uprisings that swept the Middle East.
"We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Moammar Gadhafi has been killed," Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril told a news conference in Tripoli.
Footage aired on Al-Jazeera television showed Gadhafi was captured wounded but alive in Sirte. The goateed, balding Gadhafi, in a bloodsoaked shirt and his face bloodied, is seen standing upright being pushed along by fighters, and he appears to struggle against them, stumbling and shouting. The fighters push him onto the hood of a pickup truck, before dragging him away.
Later footage showed fighters rolling Gadhafi's body over on the pavement, stripped to the waist and his head bloody.
There were conflicting reports over the circumstance of Gadhafi's last hours.
But most accounts agreed Gadhafi had been barricaded in with his heavily armed loyalists in the last few buildings they held in his Mediterranean coastal hometown of Sirte, furiously battling with revolutionary fighters closing in on them yesterday. At one point, a convoy tried to flee the area and was blasted by NATO airstrikes, but Jibril specified Gadhafi was not killed by the strike.
The body was later paraded through the streets of the nearby city of Misrata on top of a vehicle surrounded by a large crowd chanting, "The blood of the martyrs will not go in vain," according to footage aired on Al-Arabiya television. The fighters who killed Gadhafi are believed to have come from Misrata, a city that suffered a brutal weeks-long siege by Gadhafi's forces during the eight-month long civil war.
Abdel-Jalil Abdel-Aziz, a doctor and part of the medical team that accompanied the body in the ambulance to Misrata, said Gadhafi died from two bullet wounds, to the head and chest.
Celebratory gunfire and cries of "Allahu Akbar" or "God is Great" rang out across Tripoli. Cars honked their horns and people hugged each other. In Sirte, the ecstatic former rebels celebrated the city's fall after weeks of bloody siege by firing endless rounds into the sky, pumping their guns, knives and even a meat cleaver in the air and singing the national anthem.
Sons removed
Libya's information minister said last night that one of Gadhafi's sons, Muatassim, was killed and another, Seif al-Islam, was captured and wounded. The fate of other top figures of Gadhafi's regime remained unknown, but their ability to rally loyalists would be deeply undermined with Gadhafi's loss.
Sirte's fall caps weeks of heavy, street-by-street fighting as revolutionary fighters besieged the city. The final assault began around 8am yesterday and ended about 90 minutes later. Just before the battle, about five carloads of Gadhafi loyalists tried to flee the enclave down the coastal highway that leads out of the city. They were met by gunfire from the revolutionaries, who killed at least 20 of them.
Roland Lavoie, spokesman for NATO's operational headquarters in Naples, Italy, said the alliance's aircraft struck two vehicles of pro-Gadhafi forces yesterday morning "which were part of a larger group maneuvering in the vicinity of Sirte."
The Misrata Military Council, one of the command groups, said its fighters captured Gadhafi. One fighter who said he was at the battle said that the final fight took place at an opulent compound for visiting dignitaries built by Gadhafi's regime. He said the convoy tried to break out but after being hit it turned back and re-entered the compound. Several hundred fighters besieged it.
"We found him there," he said. "We saw them beating him (Gadhafi) and someone shot him with a 9mm pistol ... then they took him away."
Military spokesman Ahmed Bani in Tripoli told Al-Jazeera TV that a wounded Gadhafi "tried to resist so they took him down."
"I assure everyone that this story has ended," he said.
After the battle, revolutionaries searched buildings, looking for any hiding Gadhafi fighters.
At least 16 were captured, along with cases of ammunition and trucks loaded with weapons.
Reporters saw revolutionaries beating captured Gadhafi men in the back of trucks and officers intervening to stop them.
"The city of Sirte has been liberated," said Hassan Draoua, a member of Libya's interim National Transitional Council.
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