The New York Times reports: The head of the Libyan military council said that Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi was killed Thursday as fighters battling the vestiges of his fallen regime wrested control of his hometown of Surt after a prolonged struggle. Al-Jazeera television showed what it said was Colonel Qaddafi’s corpse as Libyans rejoiced.
Abdul Hakim Belhaj, the leader of the Tripoli military council, said on Al Jazeera that the former leader had been killed and that anti-Qaddafi forces had his body.
The report of Colonel Qaddafi’s death by the highest ranking military officer in Libya’s interim government appeared to put an end to the fierce manhunt for the former leader who remained on the lam in Libya for weeks after the fall of his government.
Libya’s interim leaders had said they believed that some Qaddafi family members — possibly including Colonel Qaddafi and several of his sons — were hiding in the coastal town of Surt or in Bani Walid, another loyalist bastion that the anti-Qaddafi forces captured several days ago.
There were multiple reports on Thursday that Colonel Qaddafi had been either captured or killed in the fighting. Previous such reports regarding high-level Qaddafi officials have proven false.
As rumor of his death spread in the capital, Tripoli, car horns blared as many celebrated in the streets.
Victoria Nuland, the State Department spokeswoman, traveling with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Afghanistan, said the department was aware of the reports “on the capture or killing of Muammar Qaddafi” but could not confirm them “at this time.”
There was no immediate comment from Mr. Jalil, the interim government’s top official. If confirmed, the capture or killing of Colonel Qaddafi — along with the fall of Surt — would allow Mr. Abdul Jalil to declare the country liberated and in control of its borders, and to start a process that would lead to a general election for a national council within eight months.
Libyan fighters said on Thursday that they had routed the last remaining forces loyal to Colonel Qaddafi from the Surt, ending weeks of fierce fighting that had prevented Libya’s interim rulers from declaring the country liberated and starting the transition to an elected government.
A military spokesman for the interim government, Abdel Rahman Busin, said, “Surt is fully liberated.”
Pepe Escobar touched on Libya today in a broader article about Africa and the battle between China and the US for control.
A few hundred soldiers and no less than 80,000 civilians have been bombed for weeks by NATO and the former “rebels”. Only 20,000 civilians have managed to escape. There’s no food left. Water and electricity have been cut off. Hospitals are idle. The city – under siege – is in ruins. Sirte imams have issued a fatwa (decree) allowing survivors to eat cats and dogs.
What Gaddafi never did to Benghazi – and there’s no evidence he might have – the TNC is doing to Sirte, Gaddafi’s home town. Just like the murderous US offensive in Fallujah in the Iraqi Sunni triangle in late 2004, Sirte is being destroyed in order to “save it”. Sirte, the new Fallujah, is brought to you by NATO rebels. R2P, RIP.
Source: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/MJ21Dj03.html
So any predictions about what happens now? My guess is that now Gaddaffi is dead all the factions can get down to the business of fighting each other for the bombed out scraps of Libya. NATO will lose the will to continue the expensive bombing raids and leave only a few advisers/diplomats to stir the pot.
The NYT is so behind the breaking wave…here’s a video clip on the Guardian which indicates Gadhafi was captured before being executed.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2011/oct/20/gaddafi-removed-truck-alive-video
Relying on American media is pointless. For one they rarely expose their own reporters, but rely on second hand opinions…
Ian, perhaps most interesting in that video are the American BDU’s worn by Ghaddafy’s “handlers”
Gaddafi, Bin Laden, Clinton, Obama and the rule of Law
We are a nation of laws. We are signatories to the Geneva Convention. We flooded Libya with CIA agents instructed, among other things to help the “Rebels” find and capture Moamar Gaddafi. And bring him to justice as provided for by our Constitution and by the Geneva Convention.
If NATO was able to, with the assistance of the Bush/Clinton/ CIA Cocaine Cabal…if NATO was able to employ smart bombs, Cruise Missiles, radar site jamming and hundreds of CIA agents on the ground, you’d think that they would have equipped the Rebels with stun grenades, tasers and stun guns. And specifically instructed these “Rebels” that, under no circumstances are Gaddafii and his sons and his generals…under no circumstances were these people to be killed! Because…because, these people know where the 20,000 Stinger Missiles are hidden throughout this vast desert land. Because these Stinger Missiles will surely be sold to the highest bidders…and will stalk domestic airliners around the globe. For the next thirty years! And furthermore, because we, a Nation of Laws, do not do business that way.
Finally, I find it ironic that the disbarred Illinois lawyer/president and the lawyer wife of another disbarred /lawyer President….I find it ironic that these two lawyer politicians, who are increasingly unpopular with Citizens who “elected” them….I find it ironic that it is these two lawyers who are, once again, crowing about the role that they played in yet another political assassination! In violation of the very Constitution that they swore to protect and defend.
Hillary Watcher
Little Rock
Kiling of quadafi was fair since he was cruddest dectator in africa ever happen