Who shot Gaddafi? New video shows blood pouring from dictator immediately before death but mystery surrounds coup de grace
- Gaddafi's last words were 'Do you know right from wrong?'
- Executed in front of a baying mob and body paraded through the streets...
- ....but acting Libyan PM claims Gaddafi was killed in crossfire
- Gaddafi may have launched last-ditch fightback in back of ambulance
- Bodyguard 'killed leader' to spare him indignity of capture
- Eccentric dictator was wearing gold pants when he was killed
- France announces end of Nato airstrikes as 'mission is complete'
- Eldest son Saif 'captured in Zlitan' after arms are injured in explosions
- Body covered in plastic and stashed in freezer to keep out baying crowds
- Uncertainty over burial as wife calls for UN inquiry into husband's death
The final bloody moments of Muammar Gaddafi's life were still shrouded in confusion today as conflicting reports emerged about who fired the shot that actually killed him.
Libya's deposed leader was pulled out alive from a drain under a motorway in Sirte, the city of his birthplace, where he had been hiding with a small group of bodyguards.
A clutch of videos have emerged on the internet in which he is seen begging his captors for mercy. His condition varies dramatically, with later footage showing him rambling and drenched in blood.
Wounded and terrified, Gaddafi appeared deluded to the end, asking his captors: 'What did I do to you?' His last words were 'Do you know right from wrong?'
Scroll down for video of Gaddafi's last minutes...
But there have been claims by rebels who witnessed the killing that Gaddafi was actually shot by one of his own bodyguards to spare him further humiliation.
It has also been suggested he was shot during a fight inside an ambulance conveying him to hospital or that he was actually caught in crossfire.
'He might have been resisting. He might have struggled, tried to escape,' a Libyan revolutionary said.
Pictures of Gaddafi's body show a bullet hole in the temple, which supports claims he was shot at close range.
'They captured him alive and while he was being taken away, they beat him and then they killed him,' a freedom fighter said.
Gaddafi's battered body was paraded through the streets of Sirte to the sound of celebratory gunfire and jubilant shouts.
Another video captured the corpse of the 69-year-old being dragged through the streets of Sirte, to be paraded later before celebrating crowds in the nearby port town of Misrata.
RAF Tornados helped launch the final airstrike by flying surveillance missions which cleared the way for French fighter jets to bomb a Gaddafi convoy.
The astonishing end for the tyrant came after he and loyalist fighters tried to flee Sirte as it was overrun by forces of the National Transitional Council.
Gaddafi was in a convoy of up to 100 vehicles which tried to break out of Sirte – the last centre of resistance after eight months of civil war – early yesterday.
The escape was spotted by Nato which launched two devastating strikes. At least 50 loyalist fighters were killed.
Injured in both legs, Gaddafi made his way with bodyguards through trees. The group hid in two concrete sewers but were spotted by rebels.
A Libyan named Salem Bakeer said that he and his comrades gave chase to Gaddafi and his small retinue of bodyguards after they fled their convoy following the airstrike.
'At first we fired at them with anti-aircraft guns, but it was no use,' said Bakeer.
'Then we went in on foot. One of Gaddafi's men came out waving his rifle in the air and shouting surrender, but as soon as he saw my face he started shooting at me.
Watch the footage of Gaddafi's last minutes in this video:
'Then I think Gaddafi must have told them to stop. ''My master is here, my master is here'', he said, ''Muammar Gaddafi is here and he is wounded.''
'We went in and brought Gaddafi out. He was saying ''What's wrong? What's wrong? What's going on?''. Then we took him and put him in the car.'
Freelance photojournalist Holly Pickett was embedded with an ambulance. She said that she saw another ambulance carrying Gaddafi.
So close was she to the action, that she was able to pick out the bloodied body of Gaddafi. She says that he was wearing gold pants.
She tweeted: 'From the side door, I could see a bare chest with bullet wound and a bloody hand. He was wearing gold-coloured pants.
'At every checkpoint between Sirte and Misrata, crowds had gathered and wanted to know if we were the ambulance with Gaddafi's body in it.
'Upon hearing the truth, that Gaddafi was truly dead, revolutionaries at the checkpoints were beside themselves, shouting with joy.'
Doctor Ibrahim Tika added: 'Gaddafi was arrested while he was alive but he was killed later. There was a bullet and that was the primary reason for his death, it penetrated his gut. Then there was another bullet in the head that went in and out of his head.'
The claims that Gaddafi was executed in the back of an ambulance may be celebrated in Libya. But some within the new government, which is trying to establish itself on the western stage, would have preferred for Gaddafi to have been captured alive and put on trial.
It could be for this reason that Libya's interim prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, said that Gaddafi was killed from a bullet to the head during crossfire between government fighters and his loyalists.
Jibril told a news conference in the capital, Tripoli, today: 'I am going to read to you a report by the forensic doctor who examined Gaddafi.
'It said: ''Gaddafi was taken out of a sewage pipe … he didn't show any resistance. When we started moving him he was hit by a bullet in his right arm and when they put him in a truck he did not have any other injuries. When the car was moving it was caught in crossfire between the revolutionaries and Gaddafi forces in which he was hit by a bullet in the head''.'
It is also unlikely he was shot in the head before he entered the ambulance as bullets to the head almost always knock somebody off their feet killing them instantly.
This points again to the theory that Gaddafi and a bodyguard launched a fightback inside the ambulance.
CBS News correspondent David Martin claims that Gaddafi's own bodyguard shot him, in order to spare him the indignity of being captured.
Confirmation of the death sparked wild scenes of celebration across Libya with tens of thousands taking to the streets.
Celebratory gunfire rang out across the capital, Tripoli. Cars honked their horns and people embraced each other.
In Sirte, ecstatic rebels celebrated the city’s fall after weeks of bloody siege by firing endless rounds into the sky.
Gaddafi’s death closes a chapter in the Nato-led military campaign to help rebel forces remove him from power. Ever since the fall of Tripoli, the hunt for Gaddafi had prevented rebels from claiming outright victory.
France’s defence minister announced today that the multi-million-pound bombing campaign of Libya by airforces including the RAF is now over.
‘The military operation is complete,’ said Alain Juppe, in Paris. ‘All Libyan territory is under the control of the National Transitional Council, and subject to some transitional technicalities, the Nato operation has come to an end.
‘The objective of helping the National Transitional Council to liberate their territory is now achieved,’ Mr Juppe added.
‘They will enter a phase of reconstruction, or of construction. It is about establishing the rule of law, which never existed. ‘
A meeting later today will decide the technicalities of winding up the operation which has cost British taxpayers an estimated £300 million.
Admiral Jim Stavridis made said today before a meeting of the alliance's North Atlantic Council.that it was 'a good day for Nato, a great day for the people of Libya'.
US president Barack Obama last night announced that the mission would 'soon come to an end', although Foreign Secretary William Hague struck a more cautious note.
Last night it emerged that RAF Tornados helped launch the final airstrike by flying surveillance missions which cleared the way for French fighter jets to bomb a Gaddafi convoy.
There were also claims that RAF jets carried out another raid which led to the wounding of Gaddafi’s favourite son, Saif al-Islam.
The conflict has already cost British taxpayers more than £1billion and today Nato chiefs will decide whether to end the aerial campaign.
In a statement notably free of any hint of triumphalism, the Prime Minister said he was ‘proud’ of the role Britain played in helping the Libyan people liberate their country.
Outside 10 Downing Street, Mr Cameron said: ‘People in Libya today have an even greater chance of building themselves a strong and democratic future.
‘I’m proud of the role that Britain has played in helping them to bring that about and I pay tribute to the bravery of the Libyans who have helped to liberate their country.’
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who with Mr Cameron had kept up pressure for Nato’s continued role, said Gaddafi’s death was a ‘major step on the country’s path to democracy.’
U.S. President Barack Obama said: ‘This marks the end of a long and painful chapter for the people of Libya.’
Nato leaders will be watching anxiously over the next few days, however, in case Gaddafi loyalists plunder stockpiled weapons to wreak bloody revenge on the rebels.
Five bodyguards were killed but one tried to save Gaddafi, telling rebels: ‘My master is here, my master is here. Muammar Gaddafi is here and he is wounded.’
His death decisively ends a regime that had turned Libya into an international pariah.
The oil-rich nation now enters a new era, but its turmoil may not be over.
The former rebels who now rule are disorganised, face rebuilding a country stripped of institutions, and have already shown signs of infighting with divisions between geographical areas and Islamist and more secular ideologies.
Both Gaddafi and Saif had faced international war crimes warrants and there was concern last night that unlike Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who was similarly pulled from a hole where he was hiding – he eventually was hanged in Baghdad – the Libyan leader was effectively executed by the troops of a fledgling democracy.
‘I would have loved to have seen Gaddafi appear in front of the International Criminal Court both to answer charges against his gross treatment of his own people and of citizens murdered abroad by his thugs,’ he said.
‘But I would also have loved to have heard about what Gaddafi knew about the Lockerbie atrocity.’
Amnesty International called for an independent inquiry into the circumstances of the death.
Jet strike, then he slinks to a sewer
To the jubilant fighters on Sirte’s battered streets last night, the man known as 'Mad Dog' during four decades of brutal rule had met a fitting end trapped like a rat in a sewer pipe begging for his life.The most momentous day in the entire Arab Spring revolution had begun with them not even aware that the tyrant was hiding in his home city.
It ended in scenes of wild celebration as rebels fired guns into the air while Gaddafi’s force of bodyguards lay dead on the ground.
The countdown to the dictator’s downfall began at the start of the week when revolutionary fighters gained control of the stronghold of Bani Walid, where Gaddafi had first fled after the fall of Tripoli.
This opened the road to Sirte, his beloved home town.
By Tuesday they had squeezed his forces into a residential area of about 700 square yards in Sirte known as Neighbourhood Two, but were still coming under heavy fire from surrounding buildings.
Foreign snipers said to have been earning up to £500 a day, hiding in the blitzed shells of buildings, had picked off National Transitional Council troops on a daily basis.
THE LAST STAND
The final assault on Neighbourhood Two began yesterday at 8am local time, 6am GMT with two rebel tanks, artillery and a dozen anti-aircraft guns bombarding the small areas of concrete office blocks and residential housing which had been still holding out against overwhelming odds.Hundreds of National Transitional Council fighters roared in on flatback trucks under cover of the barrage.
The resistance of mainly North African mercenary snipers and Gaddafi loyalist troops was broken as position by position was over run, some surrendering, some choosing to fight to the death.
The presence of Gaddafi, who many believed to have been hiding in the southern desert near the border with Niger, explains the dogged, almost fanatical, resistance of the defenders of Sirte.
For weeks they had resisted knowing they were entirely cut off, even launching a counter attack late last week which killed and wounded more than a dozen NTC fighters.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2051361/GADDAFI-DEAD-VIDEO-Dictator-begs-life-summary-execution.html#ixzz1bRNxR9UE
No comments:
Post a Comment