Gaddafi killed as Sirte falls - live coverage
• Libyan PM confirms death of former dictator
• Pictures and video show body in the streets
• Final pro-Gaddafi stronghold Sirte falls to NTC
• Read a summary of today's key events
• Read more: Gaddafi is dead, says Libyan PM
• Read our earlier live blog here
• Pictures and video show body in the streets
• Final pro-Gaddafi stronghold Sirte falls to NTC
• Read a summary of today's key events
• Read more: Gaddafi is dead, says Libyan PM
• Read our earlier live blog here
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An NTC fighter looks through a large
concrete pipe where ousted Gaddafi was allegedly captured. Photograph:
Philippe Desmazes/AFP/Getty Images
Reuters
has filed this report from the scene outside Sirte. It describes the
wreckage of the convoy carrying Gaddafi, and tells how the dictator
escaped the Nato strike only to be killed later.
Shortly
before dawn prayers on Thursday, Gaddafi surrounded by a few dozen loyal
bodyguards and accompanied by the head of his now non-existent army Abu
Bakr Younis Jabr broke out of the two-month siege of Sirte and made a
break for the west.But they did not get far.
Natio said its aircraft struck military vehicles belonging to pro-Gaddafi forces near Sirte at about 8.30am on Thursday, but the alliance said it was unsure whether the strikes had killed Gaddafi.
Fifteen pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns lay burnt out, smashed and smouldering next to an electricity sub station some 20 metres from the main road, about two miles west of Sirte.
They had clearly been hit by a force far beyond anything the motley army the former rebels have assembled during eight months of revolt to overthrow the once feared leader.
But there was no bomb crater, indicating the strike may have been carried out by a helicopter gunship, or had been strafed by a fighter jet.
Inside the trucks still in their seats sat the charred skeletal remains of drivers and passengers killed instantly by the strike. Other bodies lay mutilated and contorted strewn in the grass. Some 50 bodies in all.
Gaddafi himself and a handful of his men escaped death and appeared to have ran through a stand of trees towards the main road and hid in the two drainage pipes.
But a group of government fighters were on their tail.
"At first we fired at them with anti-aircraft guns, but it was no use," said Salem Bakeer, while being feted by his comrades near the road. "Then we went in on foot. One of Gaddafi's men came out waving his rifle in the air and shouting surrender, but as soon as he saw my face he started shooting at me," he told Reuters.
"Then I think Gaddafi must have told them to stop. 'My master is here, my master is here', he said, 'Muammar Gaddafi is here and he is wounded'," said Bakeer.
"We went in and brought Gaddafi out. He was saying 'what's wrong? What's wrong? What's going on?'. Then we took him and put him in the car," Bakeer said. At the time of capture, Gaddafi was already wounded with gunshots to his leg and to his back, Bakeer said.
Other government fighters who said they took part in Gaddafi's capture, separately confirmed Bakeer's version of events, though one said the man who ruled Libya for 42 years was shot and wounded at the last minute by one of his own men. "One of Muammar Gaddafi's guards shot him in the chest," said Omran Jouma Shawan. Army chief Jabr was also captured alive, Bakeer said.
Libyans celebrate the death of Gaddafi in Martyrs square, Tripoli. Photograph: Ismail Zitouni/Reuters
Andrei Netto of O Estado de S. Paulo is in Tripoli,
where the streets are "full of people". He's been speaking to people in
the Libyan capital for the Guardian, where crowds are gathering in
Martyrs Square to celebrate Gaddafi's demise.
Mohamed Egwatn, 29, geologist
Today is a historical day for me. Personally I didn't expect the end of Gaddafi would be like this. I thought he would escape and that nobody will know his destiny. I was waiting for this moment. The loyalists arrested me in Tripoli last March. I'm from Benghazi, but I work in Tripoli. So I decided to demonstrate against him here and I was arrested. That's why it's a special day for me.I'd prefer Gaddafi in jail. It'd be better than killed. But it happened. And I can't hide I'm happy. He doesn't know what is to be held and stay in a prison. He doesn't know how we feel. I'd love to see Gaddafi suffering as we suffered.
Today is the end of the war. The Libyan future will be the democracy. We have no choice. We will need to learn the democratic lesson. It'll be the first time that people will decide the future of the country after 42 years. That's not easy. But at least we will have the opportunity to try to build a different future.
Mohamed Salah, 22, a student who joined the fighting
It's not over. It's the start of something different. It's amazing the way he was killed.I'm not happy he died. We should catch him alive. People should see his humiliation. He should stand in a court, trial. But the fact is he'll not stand in front of thousands of people, being humiliating in a trial broadcast by TV.
Where's his family, where's his supporters? People who were with him had no choice but to be with him. Maybe Gaddafi will be considered as a martyr for a small part of the Libyan people, but it'll be for a small number, a very small number.
Fox News says the Pentagon has told it that a US predator drone also engaged Gaddafi's convoy alongside the French jets.
Nato's secretary general Anders Fogh
has issued a statement following Gaddafi's death. He touches on the
issue of reprisals – urging Libyans to respect all civilians' rights, as
Barack Obama did earlier. He said:
After 42 years, Colonel Qadhafi's rule of fear has finally come to an end. Libya can draw a line under a long dark chapter in its history and turn over a new page. Now the people of Libya can truly decide their own future.
I call on all Libyans to put aside their differences and work together to build a brighter future. I urge the National Transitional Council to prevent any reprisals against civilians and to show restraint in dealing with defeated pro-Qadhafi forces.
Nato and our partners have successfully implemented the historic mandate of the United Nations to protect the people of Libya. We will terminate our mission in coordination 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.
Libya's information minister is now saying that Gaddafi's son Mutassim has been killed in Sirte. On Twitter, user @4Adam has posted two pictures apparently showing the dead Mutassim. Be warned: the pictures are pretty graphic.
Our correspondent Angelique Chrisafis has been speaking to Libyans in neighbouring Tunisia. She writes:
At the Libyan consulate in Tunis, protected by barbed wire and
soldiers, hundreds of Libyans gathered cheering Gaddafi's death. Many
had been injured in the fighting of recent months and had come to Tunis
for hospital treatment. Amid the sea of Libyan flags, people waved their
crutches, held up bandaged hands and showed arms in plaster-casts.
"He's gone! He's gone!" they chanted.One student who had lost his leg in the fighting in Syrte as an amateur in the rebel army had been hoisted to the top of a railing as people cheered him.
Outside the Libyan consulate. Photograph: Angelique Chrisafis for the Guardian
Omar Abodheer, 21, was in Tunis to treat a bullet
wound to his arm. A student and son of a lorry driver he had taken up an
AK47 and joined the rebels at the start of the uprising in February. He
had seen one of his friends killed beside him and started crying
remembering it. "I was scared at the start but once I saw my friend was
dead I wasn't afraid any more. I didn't even know how to handle a gun. I
never thought it was possible for Gaddafi to be caught. But now things
are going to change. We're free. I'd like Tripoli to become like
London."
Bashir Ziggi. Photograph: Angelique Chrisafis for the Guardian
Bashir Ziggi, 54, a cafe owner from Tripoli who had
relatives who had been tortured by Gaddafi's forces, said he would have
preferred for Gaddafi to be caught alive, "He died too easily. I was
hoping he could have been dragged into the square so every one of us
could punish him, so he could be hanged. So he could suffer like he made
others suffer." He said the post-Gaddafi future wasn't without
obstacles: "There will be a little chaos like there is with all change.
It's going to be tough. But we can do it. We're free."
Here's a brief summary of Obama's statement:
• Obama said today "we can definitively say that the Gaddafi regime
has come to an end". He praised the operation in Libya, which he
stressed was conducted after the Libyan people asked for help.• "The dark shadow of tyranny has been lifted", Obama said. Now the country's people have "a great responsibility to build an inclusive, tolerant and democratic Libya".
• The president said the death of Gaddafi comes at a time when "we are seeing the strength of American leadership across the world". Obama cited examples including the "taking out of al-Qaida leaders", "winding down the war in Iraq" and "transition in Afghanistan".
Obama says there have been many achievements in the world over the last few months.
"We've
taken out Arab leaders," he says – slipping in a reference to his
administration's success in killing Osama bin-Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki,
"and are winding down the war in Iraq".He concludes, however, by saying that today is for the Libyan people, before heading back into the White House.
Obama says in the US "we are reminded of all those Americans lost due
to Gaddafi's terror". Among those Americans lost due to Libya are the
victims of the Lockerbie bombing, widely seen as having been authorised
by Gaddafi.
Obama says the world "refused to stand idly by" when the Libyan people called for help.
"The Libyan people now have a great responsibility to build an inclusive, tolerant and democratic Libya."He calls on Libyans to respect the human rights of all, "including those who have been detained".
Obama promises the United States will be a partner with Libya in the future.
He's out.
"Today we can definitively say that the Gaddafi regime has come to an end," Obama says."One of the world's longest serving dictators is no more."
Obama is due to give his statement shortly. You can watch it live at the top of the blog by refreshing this page, or on the White House website.
After Gaddafi's death comes the race to claim credit. France's defence chief has said it was a French fighter jet that fired on the convoy carrying Gaddafi, according to AP.
Libyan soldiers celebrate the death of Muammar Gaddafi. Photograph: Guillem Valle/EPA
US vice president Joe Biden has
said Nato "got it right" in Libya. In the first official comment from
the US government, Biden would not confirm Gaddafi had been killed, but
said his outing was good for Libya. From the LA Times:
"Whether he's alive or dead, he's gone. The people of Libya have gotten rid of a dictator," Biden said at an event in New Hampshire, seeming to want to avoid a definitive statement on Kadafi. [...]Obama is due to give an address from the White House at 2pm ET.
Biden also seemed to compare the regime change unfolding in Libya with the Bush administration's approach to Iraq.
"NATO got it right," he said. "In this case, America spent $2 billion and didn't lose a single life. This is more the prescription for how to deal with the world as we go forward than it has in the past."
Reports are suggesting Saif al-Islam,
Muammar Gaddafi's son, has either been killed or injured. Associated
Press cited a Libyan minister as saying Saif was wounded and in
hospital.
However an al-Arabiya English correspondent claims to have "confirmed" that Saif has been killed. The Guardian has not been able to verify this.
The Guardian's Tunisia Tumblr shows how much Gaddafi's death meant to people in the country that kickstarted the Arab Spring.
The
death will "bolster the Libyan revolution, will bolster all the Arabic
revolution", one Tunisian man says. "Gaddafi represented a dictator who
resisted the revolution. I think that either Libyans or Tunisians will
be happy with the news."
Associated Press has published a new story that includes a quote from
the doctor in the ambulance that was carrying Gaddafi. The report says:
Abdel-Jalil Abdel-Aziz, a doctor who was part of the medical team that accompanied the body in the ambulance and examined it, said Gadhafi 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."The AP story also has more detail about Gaddafi's final moments.
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, apparently toward an ambulance.
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 Thursday. At one point, a convoy tried to flee the area and was blasted by NATO airstrikes, but [prime minister Mahmoud] Jibril specified Gadhafi was not killed by the strike.
More on the manner in which Gaddafi died. The national transitional
council says the former leader died on the way to hospital in Sirte; AP reports
that a doctor who was part of the medical team accompanying Gaddafi to
hospital has said he died from two bullet wounds to the head and chest.
Warning: graphic picture
The body of Muammar Gaddafi is brought by ambulance to the hospital in Misrata, Libya. Photograph: Guillem Valle/EPA
AP is expected to file more on this soon.
Here is video footage of the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, learning of the Gaddafi news on her Blackberry.
"Wow," she said, as she prepared for a TV interview.
Our Washington bureau chief Ewen Macaskill says Barack Obama will give a statement on Gaddafi's death from the Rose Garden at 2pm ET. We'll cover it live here.
Much of the debate is now focusing on how Gaddafi died. The NTC says he
died in an ambulance, but there is perhaps inevitable speculation that
he was executed. This video published to YouTube apparently shows Gaddafi alive after his capture. As with much of the imagery around today, it contains graphic footage.
Gaddafi – if the video is genuine – is shown propped up on
the bonnet of a car or truck. He is then walked forward by men carrying
guns. There appears to be blood on his shirt.
My colleague Haroon Siddique has recorded an interview with Andrei Netto, special correspondent for Brazilian paper O Estado de S. Paulo, who has been amongst the celebrations in Tripoli.
He said: They are firing guns all the time, since the end of the morning ...Last time they had some good news here in Tripoli they celebrated with guns and 21 people were killed during the celebrations so it's dangerous and the authorities are asking people not to use guns in the celebration that are coming ...but they celebrate with shooting, so I don't think things will change now.
Some Libyans, I would not say it's a majority, but I have been speaking to some Libyans, who are concerned that maybe Gaddafi could be viewed as a great leader and as a revolutionary, a military guy, who resisted to the end ...Even if the majority of people are celebrating we know there are some people who were loyalists to the end.
There are people with NTC flags and they are celebrating and shooting all the time. There is a huge celebration being prepared for Martyrs' Square, the old Green Square ...
The NTC members are concerned about the situation [with respect to other members of Gaddafi's inner circle], specially regarding Saif [al-Islam] and the others who maybe in the desert. The people in the streets are not concerned about Saif at all. I would say in the Libyan imagination, the public opinion, that's the end, the revolution is accomplished.
Associated Press reports that bodies of "suspected Gaddafi loyalists"
could be seen lying outside storm drains where Gaddafi was reportedly
found hiding in Sirte. "The concrete walls of the drains are
spray-painted with graffiti and the earth around them is dry," AP's
reporter writes.
Julian Borger writes:
Guma al-Gamaty, an NTC spokesman here in London, has just confirmed to
me that 17 top Gaddafi aides have been arrested at the time of their
leader's death and their names will be made public this evening.
Nato commanders are recommending the Libya air campaign should now be
brought to an end, according to the Guardian diplomatic editor Julian Borger.
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.
This is Adam Gabbatt in New York, continuing the Guardian's live coverage of the aftermath of and reaction to Muammar Gaddafi's death. Here is a summary of events so far.
• Gaddafi, who ruled Libya from 1969 until August this year, was 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.
Follow the latest news and reaction here to the news of Gaddafi's death.
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