News
Friday, October 21, 2011
Gaddafi falls* Toppled dictator killed in his hometown, sparking furore across Libya
* Gaddafi’s son Mutassim also killed in Sirte
SIRTE: Toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi was killed on Thursday in a final assault by new regime forces on the last pocket of resistance in his hometown Sirte, sparking wild joy and celebratory gunfire across Libya.
“We announce to the world that Gaddafi has died in the custody of the revolution,” National Transitional Council spokesman Abdel Hafez Ghoga said in the eastern city of Benghazi.
“It is an historic moment. It is the end of tyranny and dictatorship. Gaddafi has met his fate,” he added.
He said that the fugitive despot’s death been “confirmed by our commanders on the ground in Sirte, those who captured him after he had been wounded in the battle for Sirte.”
As Libyans on the streets of Tripoli and Sirte fired automatic weapons into the air and danced for joy, world leaders welcomed Gaddafi’s demise as the end of despotism, tyranny, dictatorship and ultimately war in the north African country.
NTC fighters, who had fought in the bloody seven-month conflict that toppled the veteran despot at a cost of more than 25,000 lives, erupted in jubilation at the news, which followed earlier reports that Gaddafi had been captured alive. A photograph taken on a mobile phone appeared to show the 69-year-old Gaddafi, toppled by NTC fighters in August, heavily bloodied.
In the blurry image, Gaddafi is seen with blood-soaked clothing and blood daubed across his face. A video circulating among NTC fighters in Sirte showed mobile phone footage of what appeared to be Gaddafi’s bloodied corpse.
In the grainy images, a large number of NTC fighters are seen yelling in chaotic scenes around a khaki-clad body, which has blood oozing from the face and neck. The body is then dragged off by the fighters and loaded in the back of a pick-up truck.
Another NTC commander said one of Gaddafi’s sons, Mutassim, was also killed in Sirte. “We found him dead. We put his body and that of former defence minister Abu Bakar Yunis Jabar in an ambulance to take them to Misrata,” said Muhammad Leith.
News of Gaddafi’s death came as new regime troops overran the last redoubt of his loyalists in Sirte, bringing to an end a two-month siege.
Gaddafi was wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity but Libyan leaders had said they wanted him captured alive so he could be put on trial in his home country. afp
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk