Muammar Gaddafi is dead

A man named Mohammed Al Bibi claims to have killed Gaddafi

Berlusconi says war in Libya is 'over'

British PM says 'day to remember Gaddafi's victims'

Gaddafi's defence minister also declard dead

Dateline: Eight months of conflict in Libya

 

 

 

Today's Timeline

 

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi died today as his hometown fell to the one-time rebels who ousted him, ending the last vestiges of control for the man once hailed as the "king of kings of Africa."

Here's a running account of the day's developments. All times are local in Libya, which is two hours ahead of GMT and six hours ahead of EDT.

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4:58 p.m.

Gadhafi's bloodied body was loaded on top of a vehicle and taken to Misrata, a city that was besieged for months by his forces. A large crowd surrounding the vehicle chanted, "The blood of the martyrs will not go in vain."

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4:51 p.m.

Russia's presidential envoy to Libya warned that Gadhafi's death may not end the fighting in Libya.

"Today's problem of Libya is not the problem of Gadhafi'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."

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4:44 p.m.

Initial reports from fighters said Gadhafi was holed up with the remnants of his forces in the last few buildings they held in Sirte. At one point, a convoy tried to flee and was blasted by NATO airstrikes. It's not clear if Gadhafi died there or in the buildings.

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4:36 p.m.

The Transitional National Council informed the U.S. of Gadhafi's death minutes before Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril's announcement. Reaction from the White House and the U.N. secretary-general are expected shortly.

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4:20 p.m.

BREAKING: Libya's prime minister says Moammar Gadhafi has been killed.

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4:13 p.m.

U.S. official: Libyan leaders have informed the U.S. that Gadhafi is dead.

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4:02 p.m.

Al-Jazeera TV is airing shaky footage of a man resembling Gadhafi lying dead or badly wounded, bleeding from the head and stripped to the waist as fighters roll him over on the pavement.<

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3:58 p.m.

The White House isn't saying much about developments in Libya while U.S. officials await more word. But even before confirmation, Sen. John McCain called it "an end to the first phase of the Libyan revolution."<

He said the U.S. and Nato should continue support for Libya. The U.S. led the start of the Nato air campaign that bolstered the rebel forces in the early days.

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3:50 p.m.

Tomorrow marks two months since Tripoli fell to the rebels and Gadhafi disappeared from his compound in the capital. At the time, their transitional government said they dedicated a special unit of crack fighters to track him down.

There have been rumors of Gadhafi's whereabouts for weeks — some said he was in neighboring Niger or Algeria, some said he could be in a bunker deep beneath Tripoli.

Today in Niger, Aghaly Alambo, a native of Niger who became a part of Gadhafi's inner circle, said he was watching TV and following the developments closely, but his own sources in Libya had not yet been able to confirm the reports of Gahdafi's capture.

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3:44 p.m.

Libyan officials are calling a news conference in Tripoli with Mahmoud Jibril, the prime minister of the transitional government and the highest-ranking official in the capital now. It's scheduled to begin in 15 minutes.

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3:32 p.m.

There are celebrations in the streets in Tripoli as reports spread of Gadhafi's capture or possible death. The transitional government summoned journalists more than an hour ago for an imminent news conference, but they still haven't made an official announcement.<

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3:04 p.m.

In Sirte, fighters who have battled for months to seize control of the country from Gadhafi's forces embraced in the streets and chanted. "The war, it's finished," one fighter said.

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2:54 p.m.

A spokesman for Libya's transitional government says Gadhafi has been captured and possibly killed in the fall of his hometown. Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam says he expects the prime minister to make an announcement in an hour or so. Past reports of Gadhafi's death or capture have been wrong.

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2:44 p.m.

Nato confirms they've hit a convoy of Gadhafi loyalists fleeing Sirte, and Libyan fighters say they captured the ousted leader.<

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2:14 p.m.

White House officials are monitoring the reports of Gadhafi's capture and death but say they can't confirm anything. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was just in Libya yesterday and said then she hoped for his demise. She also offered U.S. aid to the interim government.<

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2:09 p.m.

Libyan officials and NATO say they can't confirm reports that Gadhafi was captured or killed today when his hometown fell.<

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12:36 p.m.

Discarded military uniforms of Gadhafi's forces are in the streets. One fighter climbed a traffic light, kissed the revolution's flag then unfurled it.<

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11:35 a.m.

"The city has been liberated," says Hassan Draoua, a member of Libya's interim government. The Libyan fighters were seen beating captured Gadhafi men in the back of trucks, with officers trying to stop them.

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11:05 a.m.

Gadhafi's hometown, Sirte, has fallen to the rebels. Our reporter in the city says Libyan fighters are searching homes and buildings looking for any Gadhafi loyalists who might be hiding.

 

 

Muammar Gaddafi, who ruled Libya with a dictatorial grip for 42 years until he was ousted by rebels in a bloody civil war, was killed Thursday when revolutionary forces overwhelmed his hometown, Sirte, the last major bastion of resistance two months after the regime fell.

He is said to been found in a hole and had begged not be killed, reports said.

Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril confirmed Gaddafi had been killed. "We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Muammar Gaddafi has been killed," Jibril told a news conference in the capital Tripoli.

Initial reports from fighters said Gaddafi had been holed up with the last of his fighters in the furious battle with revolutionary fighters assaulting the last few buildings they held in his Mediterranean coastal hometown of Sirte. At one point, a convoy tried to flee the area and was blasted by Nato airstrikes, though it was not clear if Gaddafi was in the vehicle.

Al Jazeera TV showed footage of a man resembling the 69-year-old Gaddafi lying dead or severely wounded, bleeding from the head and stripped to the waist as fighters rolled him over on the pavement. Witnesses said his body was put on display in the nearby city of Misrata.

Celebratory gunfire and cries of "Allahu Akbar" or "God is Great" rang out across the capital Tripoli as the reports spread. 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.

Libya's new leaders had said they would declare the country's "liberation" after the fall of Sirte. The death or capture of Gaddafi adds greater solidity to that declaration.

It rules out a scenario that some had feared — that he might flee deeper into Libya's southern deserts and lead a resistance campaign against Libya's rulers.

Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam said he was told that Gaddafi was dead from fighters who said they saw the body.

"Our people in Sirte saw the body," Shammam told The Associated Press. "Revolutionaries say Gaddafi was in a convoy and that they attacked the convoy." He said the government head, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, would officially confirm the death, but it was not clear when. Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, the number two in the administration, called a press conference for 4 p.m. local time (10 a.m EDT)

Sirte's fall caps weeks of heavy, street-by-street fighting as revolutionary fighters besieged the Mediterranean coastal city. Despite the fall of Tripoli on Aug. 21, Gaddafi loyalists mounted fierce resistance in several areas, including Sirte, preventing Libya's new leaders from declaring full victory in the eight-month civil war. Earlier this week, revolutionary fighters gained control of one stronghold, Bani Walid.

By Tuesday, fighters said they had squeezed Gaddafi's forces in Sirte into a residential area of about 700 square yards but were still coming under heavy fire from surrounding buildings.

In an illustration of how heavy the fighting has been, it took the anti-Gaddafi fighters two days to capture a single residential building.

Reporters at the scene watched as the final assault began around 8 a.m. Thursday and ended about 90 minutes later. Just before the battle, about five carloads of Gaddafi loyalists tried to flee the enclave down the coastal highway that leads out of the city. But they were met by gunfire from the revolutionaries, who killed at least 20 of them.

Col. Roland Lavoie, spokesman for Nato's operational headquarters in Naples, Italy, said the alliance's aircraft Thursday morning struck two vehicles of pro-Gaddafi forces "which were part of a larger group maneuvering in the vicinity of Sirte."

But Nato officials, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance to alliance rules, said the alliance also could not independently confirm whether Gaddafi was killed or captured.

The Misrata Military Council, one of the command groups, said its fighters captured Gaddafi.

Another commander, Abdel-Basit Haroun, said Gaddafi was killed when the airstrike hit the fleeing convoy.

One fighter who said he was at the battle told AP Television News that the final fight took place at an opulent compound for visiting dignitaries built by Gaddafi's regime. Adel Busamir said the convoy tried to break out but after being hit it turned back and re-entered the compound. Several hundred fighters assaulted.

"We found him there," Busamir said. "We saw them beating him (Gaddafi) and someone shot him with a 9mm pistol ... then they took him away."

In a sign of the conflicting versions, military spokesman Col. Ahmed Bani in Tripoli told Al-Jazeera TV, "I can assure everyone in Libya that Gaddafi has been killed for sure and I'm definitely sure and I reassure everyone that this story has ended and this book has closed."

But rather than a strike on the convoy, he said a wounded Gaddafi "tried to resist (revolutionary forces) so they took him down."

After the battle, revolutionaries began searching homes and buildings looking for any hiding Gaddafi fighters. At least 16 were captured, along with cases of ammunition and trucks loaded with weapons. Reporters saw revolutionaries beating captured Gaddafi men in the back of trucks and officers intervening to stop them.

In the central quarter where Thursday's final battle took place, the fighters looking like the same ragtag force that started the uprising eight months ago jumped up and down with joy and flashed V-for-victory signs. Some burned the green Gaddafi flag, then stepped on it with their boots.

They chanted "Allah akbar," or "God is great" in Arabic, while one fighter climbed a traffic light pole to unfurl the revolution's flag, which he first kissed. Discarded military uniforms of Gaddafi's fighters littered the streets. One revolutionary fighter waved a silver trophy in the air while another held up a box of firecrackers, then set them off.

"Our forces control the last neighborhood in Sirte," Hassan Draoua, a member of Libya's interim National Transitional Council, told The Associated Press in Tripoli. "The city has been liberated."

In another report, medics told news agency AFP that Gaddafi defence minister Abu Bakr Yunis was dead.

Al Jazeera Television broadcast pictures of the body of a man it identified as that of fallen Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's defence minister, Abu Bakr Younus.

The television footage showed a bearded man with a bullet hole just below his neck.

An NTC commander said Gaddafi's son Mutassim found dead in Sirte.

Sirte captured

Libyan interim government fighters captured Muammar Gaddafi's home town on Thursday, extinguishing the last significant holdout of resistance by troops loyal to the deposed leader and ending a two-month siege.

The capture of Sirte means Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) should now begin the task forging a new democratic system which it had said it would start after the city, built as a showpiece for Gaddafi's rule, had fallen.

Gaddafi, wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of ordering the killing of civilians, is in hiding, possibly deep in Libya's Sahara desert. He was toppled by rebel forces on Aug. 23 after 42 years of rule over the oil-producing North African state.

"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 commander confirmed the city had been captured and some rebel fighters beeped their car horns and shouted "congratulations" to one another.

But many were still edgy and troops did not allow reporters to enter the positions formerly held by the Gaddafi loyalists as they said mopping up operations were still underway.

A group of some 40 vehicles carrying Gaddafi forces had broken out of the city and had headed west, NTC fighters said.

"The Gaddafi people broke out west, but the revolutionaries have them surrounded and are dealing with them," said one of the fighters, Abdul Salam Mohammad.

Reuters saw NTC vehicles enter Neighbourhood Two, the last part of Sirte held by Gaddafi's men and also other vehicles racing towards the west. Two dejected-looking Gaddafi prisoners were marched down a street, guarded by a pair of NTC fighters.

The sound of shooting could be heard coming from the west of the city.

Hundreds of NTC troops have surrounded the Mediterranean coastal town for weeks in a chaotic struggle that has killed and wounded scores of the besieging forces and an unknown number of defenders.

NTC fighters said there were a large number of corpses inside the last redoubts of the Gaddafi troops, but it was not immediately possible to verify the claim.

Thousands of civilians have fled Sirte which had a peacetime population of 75,000 and now lies largely in ruins from the rocket, artillery and tank fire which rained down on the town for weeks.

Berlusconi says war in Libya is 'over': report

(AFP) -

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Thursday that the war in Libya was 'over' amid reports that deposed Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi has been captured or killed, according to ANSA news agency.

"Sic transit gloria mundi (Thus passes the glory of the world)," Berlusconi is reported to have quoted in Latin of his old ally and the leader of Italy's former colony, adding: "Now the war is over."

Libya's colonial ruler from 1911 until World War II, Italy had been a close ally and economic partner of the ousted regime since a 2008 friendship treaty signed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Gaddafi.

Although Berlusconi had expressed Italy's solidarity with the rebels and called on Kadhafi to give himself up in August, Rome had been slow to participate in the Nato-led air strikes against the regime.

Gaddafi's fate should be decided by Libyans: Medvedev
(AFP)

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday in response to reports of Moamer Kadhafi's capture that only the Libyan people could decide the deposed strongman's fate.

"The fate of Gaddafi should be decided by the Libyan people," Medvedev was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies following reports of Gaddafi's capture in his native city of Sirte.

Reports of the former dictator's capture emerged just as Medvedev and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte emerged for a press appearance that followed a scheduled meeting otherwise devoted to trade.

Libyan National Transitional Council commander Mohamed Leith had moments earlier told AFP that Gaddafi was "badly wounded" while the Libya lil Ahrar television channel had said he was in custody.

The Dutch prime minister appeared prepared to address the media.

"My assistant has just told me that Gaddafi really has been captured. This happened during our negotiations" with Medvedev, Russian news agencies quoted Rutte as saying through a translator.

"If it's true, it's great," Rutte added according to the Dutch news agency ANP.

"But we had nothing to do with it," Medvedev joked in response.

His comments alluded to Russia's strong resistance to the foreign campaign that helped the former rebel forces oust Gaddafi's armies from Tripoli and the other major cities of the oil-rich country.

Gaddafi was a strong ally of Russia who was allowed to pitch his tent on the Kremlin grounds during a visit to Russia in 2008 and purchased weapons from Moscow.

But Russia's refusal to veto a UN Security Council resolution in March allowed for the Nato-led campaign to proceed.

 

British PM says 'day to remember Gaddafi's victims'

Brititsh Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday the death of Moamer Gaddafi was an occasion to remember his victims, while hailing it as a chance for a "democratic future" for Libya.

"I think today is a day to remember all of Colonel Gaddafi's victims" including those who died in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, Cameron said in a statement outside 10 Downing Street.

Dateline: Eight months of conflict in Libya

(AFP)

FEBRUARY
- 15-19: Inspired by revolts in other Arab countries, including neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt, a rebellion erupts in Benghazi, Libya's second city.

MARCH
- 19: With troops loyal to Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi threatening rebel-held Benghazi, French, US and British forces launch UN-mandated air strikes and push them back.
- 31: The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation takes over formal command of the military operation.

APRIL
- 20: France and Italy join Britain in sending military advisers to assist the rebels.

MAY
- 1: Kadhafi escapes a NATO air strike, which the regime says kills his youngest son, Seif al-Arab, and three grandchildren.

JUNE
- 29: France says it has air-dropped weapons to rebel forces.

JULY
- 15: In Istanbul, the Contact Group designates the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) as Libya's legitimate rulers, paving the way for the release of frozen Kadhafi regime assets.
- 28: Rebel military chief General Abdel Fatah Yunis assassinated in the east as insurgent fighters pound forces loyal to Kadhafi in the west.

AUGUST
- 10: EU widens sanctions against the regime.
- 23: Rebels overrun Kadhafi's fortified headquarters in Tripoli after heavy fighting. They find no trace of the strongman or his sons.

SEPTEMBER
- 1: In Paris, the UN and major powers unblock ê15 billion (10 billion euros) in frozen Libyan assets in return for the promise of a democratic transition.
- 9: World police body Interpol calls for the arrest of Kadhafi, his son Seif al-Islam and his intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi for alleged crimes against humanity, following a request by the ICC.
- 12: Niger says that 32 members of Kadhafi's inner circle, including his son Saadi, have arrived in Niger.
- 15: Britain's David Cameron and France's Nicolas Sarkozy visit Libya. NTC fighters launch their assault on Kadhafi's hometown Sirte.
- 16: The UN gives Libya's UN seat to the NTC.
- 20: US President Barack Obama meets Libya's interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil. Jalil says 25,000 have been killed during the uprising.
- 21: Libya's new rulers declare victory in the battle for the key southern city of Sabha, but suffer heavy losses in their offensive on Sirte.

OCTOBER
- 9: The new regime forces seize key targets in Sirte, including the Mediterranean city's showpiece conference centre, university and hospital. The 11 they seize the city's police headquarters.
- 13: Parts of Libya's airspace reopens to commercial flights. Libyan gas supplies to Italy through the Greenstream pipeline resume.
- 14: NTC forces in clashes with Kadhafi's supporters in the capital.
- 15: Kadhafi loyalists mount a fierce counter-attack in Sirte, forcing back new regime fighters.
- 17: Kadhafi holdout Bani Walid to the south-east of Tripoli "completely liberated": NTC commander.
- 18: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton makes a surprise visit to Tripoli.
- 19: Interim premier Mahmud Jibril warns politicking among the former rebels risks plunging the country into chaos.
- 20: Kadhafi captured and seriously wounded, a NTC commander and Libyan television say. Field commanders say Sirte is entirely liberated.

 

 

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