Muammar Gaddafi captured & reportedly killed

FORMER Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi has been captured - and reportedly killed - in the final desperate battle for his home town of Sirte.

The news, announced by the country's ruling National Transitional Council last night and broadcast on Libyan television, sparked celebrations across the country, amid hope the dictator's demise was the final chapter in the nine-month conflict that has cost thousands of lives.

The NTC information minister Mahmoud Shammam said Libyan Prime Minister Mustafa Abdel Jalil was to confirm Gaddafi's death in a broadcast to the nation.

Gaddafi's last stronghold, Sirte, had earlier fallen to forces loyal to the NTC, which formed after the collapse of the Gaddafi's regime.

"Gaddafi personally is in the hands of the rebels," state TV claimed initially. "We have captured Gaddafi. Libya is joyous."

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An anti-Gaddafi fighter said the former leader had been found hiding in a hole and shouted "Don't shoot, don't shoot" when confronted by fighters of the NTC.

Some reports claimed Gaddafi had been shot in both legs.

NTC commander Mohamed Leith, announcing Gaddafi's capture, said: "He is badly wounded, but he is still breathing."

He added that he had seen Gaddafi himself and that he was wearing a khaki uniform and a turban.

Gaddafi was reported to have been taken to a hospital in Sirte and NTC troops said he was then taken on to Misratah.

"He's captured. He's wounded in both legs . . . he's been taken away by ambulance," a senior NTC military official was quoted as saying. Some news reports said Gaddafi had died en route to a hospital. The NTC said that Moussa Ibrahim, the man who became the face of the Gaddafi regime as his international spokesman, had also been captured in Sirte.

In the past, claims have been made by rebels and the NTC about Gaddafi or members of his family but these turned out to be untrue.

A pro-Gaddafi television website denied reports the strongman had been killed or captured. In Sirte, medics said the defence minister in Gaddafi's ousted regime, Abu Bakr Yunis, had been killed in the battle for Sirte.

Yunis's body was identified at the field hospital where it was brought in on a pick-up truck.

Ali Errishi, who served as Gaddafi's minister of immigration before defecting to the rebellion, said he was "confident" the strongman was in custody.

"That is the end of a long ordeal of the Libyan people," Mr Errishi told the Al-Jazeera news channel.

Gaddafi's son Mutassim was reportedly killed in the operation in which his father was wounded.

NTC fighters who had fought in the ? conflict that toppled the veteran despot at a cost of more than 25,000 lives were jubilant at the news of his capture.

Pick-up trucks blaring out patriotic music criss-crossed the streets of Sirte, as fighters flashed V-for-victory signs and chanted "Allahu Akbar" (? is Greatest).

Many pick-up trucks are playing the new national anthem and other revolutionary songs.

"Sirte is free. The whole of Libya is free," said Khaled Ballam, field commander of the February 17 Brigade, which took part in the final assault on Sirte.

"We had some clashes but there was no fierce resistance as many Gaddafi fighters were trying to escape rather than fight because they had no other option. The game is over."

Abdul Matlub Saleh, a fighter from the February 17 Brigade, said: "Every inch of the city is liberated. Our people are spread everywhere. There is no fighting. The gunfire that you are hearing is all celebrations."

An AFP correspondent heard sporadic gunfire in the neighbourhood during the morning as NTC fighters went house to house to root out the snipers who have inflicted heavy losses in their ranks in recent days.

Medics said that at least three NTC fighters were killed and 30 wounded on Thursday.

"I am happy we have got revenge for our people who suffered for all these years and for those who were killed in the revolution. Gaddafi is finished," said fighter Talar al-Kashmi.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said last night the war in Libya was "over".

"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."

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said late last night in response to reports of Gaddafi'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," Mr Medvedev was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

For four decades the wilful, mercurial figure of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi ruled Libya with an iron grip while remaining a persistent thorn in the side of the West.

Branded "mad dog" by Ronald Reagan, the outlandish antics, flamboyant dress and bombastic pronouncements of the self-styled "Brother Leader" made him a figure of ridicule at times.

During his travels abroad he was accompanied by a blonde Ukrainian nurse and insisted on staying in his Bedouin tent, protected by his team of glamorous, gun-toting female bodyguards.

When he was interviewed by the BBC's John Simpson, he noisily broke wind throughout their encounter.

But he has also been associated with some of the most notorious terrorist atrocities of the pre-9/11 era.

He shipped arms to the IRA during the Troubles in Northern Ireland and his regime has accepted responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing.

At home in Libya he ruthlessly crushed dissent against his autocratic rule while his agents hunted down and killed opponents abroad.

When his people - inspired by the the Arab Spring - finally rose up against him earlier this year, he responded with a characteristic mixture of bluster and brutality calling for the "devils" to be cleansed.

But for all the outrage over his flouting of international norms, he was also seen by diplomats as a wily political operator, proving to be one of the great survivors in a turbulent region.

Through assassination attempts, sanctions and US airstrikes, he doggedly clung to power. Born in the desert in 1942, at 27 years old Gaddafi became the leader of a small group of junior army officers who in September 1969 staged a bloodless coup, overthrowing King Idris while he was abroad.

Anti-Western and inspired by Egypt's president Gamal Abdel Nasser, he governed according to his unique political philosophy - set out in his Green Book - based on a combination of socialism and Arab nationalism.

He quickly showed he would brook no dissent to his idiosyncratic rule, reportedly having students who marched against his regime publicly hanged.