Qadhafi and Abu Bakr Younis Killed in Last Battle in Sirte, October 2011

Qadhafi and Abu Bakr Younis Killed in Last Battle in Sirte

October 2011

Al-Jazeera TV conducted interview with Abdul Hakim Belhaj, military commander of Tripoli, who announced that the deposed dictator, Mu'ammer Al-Qadhafi, was killed in fighting in Sirte together with his close aids, like Abu Bakr Younus Jaber, in the last battle in Sirte.

More interviews followed with the fighters who captured him confirming his death after his capture during fighting in Sirte after wounding him in his legs and face.

The Libyan revolutionary fighters also captured Al-Mu'atassem, the dictator's son, alive in Sirte. However, another son, Saif, is still at large in Niger.

NTC official: Qadhafi captured

Ma'an, 20/10/2011 13:39

TRIPOLI, Libya (Reuters) --

Deposed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was captured and wounded near his hometown of Sirte at dawn on Thursday as he tried to flee in a convoy which NATO warplanes attacked, National Transitional Council official Abdul Majid said on Thursday.

"He's captured. He's wounded in both legs ... He's been taken away by ambulance," the senior NTC military official told Reuters by telephone.

An NTC fighter said Gadhafi was hiding in a hole shouting "Don't shoot, don't shoot."

Abdul Majid said that the head of Gadhafi's armed forces Abu Bakr Younus Jabr had been killed during the capture.

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

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

Gadhafi was toppled by rebel forces on Aug. 23 after 42 years of one-man rule over the oil-producing North African state.

"Sirte has been liberated. There are no Gadhafi 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."

Government fighters hoisted the red, black and green national flag above a large utilities building in the center of a newly-captured Sirte neighborhood and celebratory gunfire broke out among their ecstatic and relieved comrades.

"Libya is free from east to west," cried a young fighter Malik al-Gantri, a young fighter from Tripoli who had been in the battle for Sirte for two weeks. "I hope to go home now," he said. "I want to see my mother."

Hundreds of NTC fighters gathered in the center of Sirte shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest"), firing guns into the air and dancing in the streets. One of them, a man aged 65 and blind in one eye, rode around on a mountain bike and carrying an AK47 assault rifle and a Libyan flag.

"This is the best day of my life," said al-Sharash Thawban. "The whole city of Sirte is freed from that criminal Gadhafi."

But a group of about 40 vehicles carrying around 100 Gadhafi loyalists broke out of the siege early on Thursday morning and had headed west, NTC fighters said.

"They broke out just as we were waking up to pray," said Dr Abdul Rauf Mohammad, who was among the NTC troops. "The Gadhafi people broke out west, but the revolutionaries have them surrounded and are dealing with them," said one of the fighters, Abdul Salam Mohammad.

Dozens of NTC pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns raced towards the west in pursuit and the sound of shooting could be heard coming from that direction.

Inside what had been the last redoubt of Gadhafi's men, an area of low-rise apartment blocks known as Neighborhood Two, was a scene of destruction: gaping holes in buildings, trees stripped of their branches, lamp-posts felled by artillery and traffic lights dangling by their cables.

Reuters saw five dejected-looking Gadhafi prisoners marched down a street, guarded by NTC fighters.

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 Gadhafi 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.

Fair Use Notice

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.