Moammar Gadhafi captured or not?

[oneh2obabe]

Moamer Kadhafi was captured as his hometown of Sirte was falling on Thursday, a National Transitional Council commander said, adding that the ousted Libyan strongman was badly wounded.

"He has been captured. He is badly wounded, but he is still breathing," Mohamed Leith told AFP, adding that he had seen Kadhafi himself and that he was wearing a kaki uniform and a turban.

Libyan TV channel "Libya lil Ahrar" also said that he was in custody.

In Sirte, medics said the defence minister in Kadhafi's ousted regime, Abu Bakr Yunis, had been killed in the final battle for the strongman's hometown.

His body was identified at the field hospital where it was brought in a pick-up truck on Thursday, Dr Abdu Rauf told AFP.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/fierce-battle- ... 04325.html

* * * *

SIRTE, LIBYA—Libyan fighters drove the last holdouts of Moammar Gadhafi out of his hometown of Sirte in a few hours of fierce gunbattles Thursday, then declared victory over the last major resistance two months after the fall of Tripoli.

There were also unconfirmed reports that Ghadafi himself had been captured by rebel forces.

Deposed Libyan leader Gaddafi has been captured and wounded in both legs, National Transitional Council official Abdel 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.

However, the U.S. State Department said it could not confirm that the deposed Libyan leader Gaddafi had been captured.

"We've seen the media reports but can't confirm them," State Department spokeswoman Beth Gosselin told Reuters.

The ecstatic former rebels celebrated by firing endless rounds into the sky, pumping their guns, knives and even a meat cleaver in the air and signing the national anthem.

In the central quarter where the 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 Gadhafi 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 Gadhafi’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 neighbourhood in Sirte,” Hassan Draoua, a member of Libya’s interim National Transitional Council, told The Associated Press in Tripoli. “The city has been liberated.”

Despite the fall of Tripoli on Aug, 21, Gadhafi 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, and by Tuesday said they had squeezed Gadhafi’s forces in Sirte into a residential area of about 700 square yards but were still coming under heavy fire from surrounding buildings.

Reporters at the scene watched as the final assault began around 8 a.m. and ended about 90 minutes later. Just before the battle, about five carloads of Gadhafi 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.

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

Deputy Defence Minister Fawzi Abu Katif on Wednesday told the AP that authorities still believe Gadhafi’s son Muatassim is among the ex-regime figures holed up in the diminishing area in Sirte. He was not seen on the ground after the final battle on Thursday.

In an illustration of how difficult and slow the fighting for Sirte was, it took the anti-Gadhafi fighters, who also faced disorganization in their own ranks, two days to capture a single residential building.

Gadhafi loyalists who have escaped could still continue the fight and attempt to organize an insurgency using the vast amount of weapons Gadhafi was believed to have stored in hideouts in the remote southern desert.

Unlike Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Gadhafi had no well-organized political party that could form the basis of an insurgent leadership. However, regional and ethnic differences have already appeared among the ranks of the revolutionaries, possibly laying the foundation for civil strife.

Gadhafi, who is in hiding, has issued several audio recordings trying to rally supporters. Libyan officials have said they believe he’s hiding somewhere in the vast southwestern desert near the borders with Niger and Algeria.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/artic ... pture?bn=1

[oneh2obabe]

Reuters and al-Jazerra are now both reporting that Libyan Leader Moammar Gadhafi is dead. Sent: 8:25 a.m.
For the latest on this breaking news story, listen to the next newscast on AM640 or listen live online at 640toronto.com.

[ferri]

i hope to heck it was his own people that got him.
i have looked at the picture and can't really tell if it is him or not. it sort of looks like him, but not a very clear picture.

[oneh2obabe]

SIRTE, Libya - Officials in Libya's transitional government said Moammar Gadhafi was captured and possibly killed Thursday when revolutionary forces overwhelmed his hometown, Sirte, the last major bastion of resistance two months after the regime fell. Amid the fighting, a NATO airstrike blasted a fleeing convoy that fighters said was carrying Gadhafi.

The head of the government did not immediately not confirm Gadhafi's capture or death. The transitional government called a news conference in Tripoli, where Prime Minister Mustafa Abdul-Jalil could confirm the death.

Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam said he was told that Gadhafi was dead from fighters who said they saw the body. He said he expects the prime minister to confirm the death soon, noting that past reports emerged before they could confirm them 100 per cent.

"Our people in Sirte saw the body ... Mustafa Abdul-Jalil will confirm it soon," Shammam told The Associated Press. "Revolutionaries say Gadhafi was in a convoy and that they attacked the convoy."

Other military officials in the government also said Gadhafi was dead and several revolutionary groups fighting in Sirte also said he was either killed or captured.

The transitional government called a news conference in Tripoli, where Abdul-Jalil could confirm the death.

Celebratory gunfire and cries of "Allahu Akbar" or "God is Great" rang out across 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.

Despite the fall of Tripoli on Aug. 21, Gadhafi 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, and by Tuesday said they had squeezed Gadhafi's forces in Sirte into a residential area of about 700 square yards but were still coming under heavy fire from surrounding buildings.

Reporters at the scene watched as the final assault began around 8 a.m. and ended about 90 minutes later. Just before the battle, about five carloads of Gadhafi 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-Gadhafi forces "which were part of a larger group manoeuvring 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 Gadhafi was killed or captured.

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

In an illustration of how difficult and slow the fighting for Sirte was, it took the anti-Gadhafi fighters two days to capture a single residential building.

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 Gadhafi 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 Gadhafi'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 neighbourhood in Sirte," Hassan Draoua, a member of Libya's interim National Transitional Council, told The Associated Press in Tripoli. "The city has been liberated."

The Misrata Military Council, one of the command groups, said its fighters captured Gadhafi. Another commander, Abdel-Basit Haroun, says Gadhafi was killed when the airstrike hit the fleeing convoy.

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 Gadhafi 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 Gadhafi "tried to resist (revolutionary forces) so they took him down."

The spokesman for Libya's transitional government, Jalal al-Gallal, and another military spokesman Abdul-Rahman Busin said the reports have not been confirmed.

The caution in making a definitive announcement came because past reports of Gadhafi family deaths or captures have later proven incorrect, even after they were announced by officials, because of the confusion among the revolutionary forces' ranks and the multiple bodies involved in commanding their fighters.

Gadhafi loyalists who have escaped could still continue the fight and attempt to organize an insurgency using the vast amount of weapons Gadhafi was believed to have stored in hideouts in the remote southern desert.

Unlike Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Gadhafi had no well-organized political party that could form the basis of an insurgent leadership. However, regional and ethnic differences have already appeared among the ranks of the revolutionaries, possibly laying the foundation for civil strife.

Gadhafi has issued several audio recordings trying to rally supporters. Libyan officials have said they believe he's hiding somewhere in the vast southwestern desert near the borders with Niger and Algeria.

[ferri]

KHQ Local News
Libya's interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril confirms to reporters in Tripoli that deposed dictator Moammar Gadhafi has been killed. http://usat.ly/pdUfyG

Fox also has a video. it sure does look like him.

[zzontar]

Great! Now we'll see the price of gas go down considerably, which is what they said would happen once he's been killed. They wouldn't lie, would they?

[Ken7]

Great! Now we'll see the price of gas go down considerably, which is what they said would happen once he's been killed. They wouldn't lie, would they?

_______________________________________________



LOL, good one that's why our prices went up on Wednesday right. No change in oil prices must be the supply and demand this week that fails to balance!

Are we being gouged just a little ???????

[NAB]

It's pretty much confirmed that Gadhafi is dead of wounds sustained during a final stand firefight with Libian fighters in a building they assaulted. While it is probably the best outcome in my opinion, it's too bad he wasn't captured and put on trial, ...or is it?

Nab

[mammamoon]

I saw the photo on the Huffington Post. I think its clear enough to plainly see that it is a dead Gadhafi. Chills down my spine. Hunted down like an animal, found hiding in a concrete culvert, with one last loyalist to protect him. I bet he was scared as hell, and didn't want to die. Karma is a beautiful thing.

[ferri]

i've watched a couple of videos. i'd say they got him.

[normaM]

I wonder where his body doubles are.

[talk-on]

The only way we can be sure the right person is dead is with DNA..all these whacko leaders have body doubles and wouldn't hesitate to throw them under the wheels of the bus in their place.. Hopefully is the right one and is one of the best pieces of news today

[ferri]

my guess is that the DNA tests are being done right now, if the results aren't already on the way back. lol
pretty gruesome video to watch.

[normaM]

so all his money and he was just hunkered down in a bunker awaiting his fate. Nope, he didn't take off weeks ago to hid out. By next week we'll be seeing pix of him and Saddam jet skiing.

[Bsuds]

The only way we can be sure the right person is dead is with DNA..all these whacko leaders have body doubles and wouldn't hesitate to throw them under the wheels of the bus in their place.. Hopefully is the right one and is one of the best pieces of news today

You meat there were 2 people that ugly!

I hope they got the right one.