Who Shot Gadaffi ?

WARNING: THIS ARTICLE HAS HIGHLY GRAPHIC IMAGES New video shows bloody dictator immediately before death but mystery surrounds coup de grace. 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?'  - David Williams - Mail-Online

Was this the moment the dictator died? A handgun points at the head of Gaddafi who is facing the ground with his hands behind his back

Fear on his face after being captured in his home town of Sirte, this is Gaddafi in the moments leading up to his death

 A dazed Gaddafi gesticulates as rebels parade him through Sirte shortly before he was shot

Grimacing in pain: A still from a video taken from the mobile phone of a rebel fighter shows Gaddafi, his face covered in blood, being dragged around by freedom fighters

Losing blood: Gaddafi lifts a hand to his face to see the blood pouring from his wounds. The mobile phone footage shows the dictator slumped against a jeep but still alive

Moments after the last grainy video was shot, it is believed he was killed. Initial reports suggested he had been executed by revolutionary forces in front of a baying mob. 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.

Grisly end: New pictures released today show Gaddafi's scarred corpse on the floor of a freezer where it is being kept before burial

One rebel claimed that he had been killed as he put up a desperate last fight for freedom. He carried his golden revolver on him at all times, and may have pulled it from his clothes. '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.

Pleading: Muammar Gaddafi begged with his captors for his life after he was found cowering in a storm drain. Paraded: Gaddafi struggled with his captors in video footage taken by rebel fighters after he was found

Chaotic: Gaddafi was pushed around by rebel fighters, one of whom filmed the incident on a mobile phone.  Becoming increasingly desperate, Gaddafi asked a rebel fighter 'What did I ever do to you?

Terrified: Moments after he begged for his life, Gaddafi was shot dead by rebel fighters

The circumstances leading up to Gaddafi's death are more clear. 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.

Struggle: Video footage shows Gaddafi being hauled off a rebel fighter truck minutes after his capture

Manhandled: The former Libyan leader is propped up against the side of a truck during the melee

Gadaffi's Last Moments

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.  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.'

 

Celebration: Mohammed al-Bibi, seen here in a Yankees hat, points to a comrade holding Gaddafi's golden gun. Al-Bibi is the one who found the despot in his final hiding place and duly claimed the war souvenir

Adel Samir said that Gaddafi was shot in the stomach with a a 9mm pistol. But Imad Moustaf told Global Post that Gaddafi was shot in the head and the heart.
Doctor Ibrahim Tika added: 'Gaddafi was arrested while he was alive but he was killed later. There was a bullet that could have been 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''.'

Dead: The body of Gaddafi is covered with a blue plastic sheet at a house in Misrata. He is due to be buried at a secret funeral within the next 24 hours

 

Gaddafi's body is displayed, clearly showing a bullet hole in his head 

The exact circumstances  are unclear. It is unlikely that bullets would have penetrated the ambulance and hit Gaddafi (who was pictured slumped against a rebel's leg) 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 knocks somebody off their feet killing them instantly. This points again to the theory that Gaddafi and a bodyguard launched a fightback inside the ambulance.
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'.

Procession: Libyans have been flocking to the morgue, where Gaddafi's body was taken, and have been taking photographs of him

Gaddafi's son Mutassim was also killed in a firefight in Sirte  

'We will want to be sure that there are no remaining pockets of pro-Gaddafi fighters who can again become a threat to the civilian population,' he said. 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.

 

Mutassim Gaddafi:  

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. 

Transporting: An ambulance, containing happy rebel fighters, carries Gaddafi's body

He is the first leader to be killed in the ‘Arab Spring’ wave of popular uprisings that have swept the Middle East, demanding the end of autocratic rulers and the establishment of greater democracy.
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 disorganized, 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.

 There had been fierce fighting around the drain before Gaddafi was finally killed. The body of a fighter can be seen in the dust at the centre of the screen. Already a monument: As celebrations continued, more and more graffiti appeared at the entrance to the drain where the leader was eventually found.

The death of Gaddafi and his son, Mutassim, who commanded loyalists in Sirte, as well as the capture of the British-educated Saif al-Islam, who was seen as the heir apparent, effectively removed any rallying point for an insurgency.

Devastated: NATO airstrikes and revolutionary ground forces concentrated on a compound in Sirte, where they believed Gaddafi was hiding. Vehicles belonging to Gaddafi's supporters sit destroyed after NATO airstrikes

Double celebration: Anti-Gaddafi fighters celebrate the fall of Sirte, but the news soon came that the leader himself had been captured

End of conflict: The fall of Sirte ends the last significant resistance by forces loyal to the deposed leader, and ends a two-month siege

 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. 

Joy: Many carried flags while some showed off pictures of the dead dictator who had been in power for 40 years
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.
FLEEING THE BUNKER
In the makeshift command bunker where Gaddafi and his closest aides had been sheltering for the past ten days, the final high-risk escape plan was activated and up to 100 vehicles prepared to leave – at their heart five cars containing the ousted dictator and key loyalists.
Local commanders say the plan appeared to be for the snipers and the few remaining heavy weapons held by pro-Gaddafi troops to ‘open up’, providing some cover for fellow fighters and the five key cars to flee.
The convoys are said to have taken two routes, with some 75 of the main body of escaping fighters going on the main road out and the other going on side roads before making a break for the desert roads heading south.
HELLFIRE UNLEASHED
From the clear skies over Sirte, aerial surveillance which included RAF Tornado planes saw the large convoy emerging from Neighbourhood Two.
Officials knew it was a high-value target because it was so big and they could detect command and control was active with it – giving them the right to attack it.
First, a U.S. drone strike was called in with hellfire missiles and then French warplanes launched a second strike on the convoy as it sped west along the coastal highway.
Last night 15 pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns lay burnt out, smashed and smouldering next to an electricity sub station 20 yards from the main road, about two miles west of Sirte.
They had clearly been hit by a force far beyond anything the motley army the former rebels have assembled during eight months of revolt to overthrow the once feared leader. Inside the trucks, still in their seats, were the charred skeletal remains of drivers and passengers killed instantly by the strike.
Others lay mutilated and contorted strewn in the grass. There were some 50 bodies in all.

 

At the time of capture, Gaddafi was already wounded with gunshots to his leg and to his back, Bakeer said. He was then dragged 50 yards to a black Jeep and thrown on to the bonnet. Several rebel fighters surrounded him, beating him about the face, before he was shot in the stomach and head.

 His son, Mutassim, had been organizing the defence of Sirte, at the time of his death and his army chief Abu Bakr Younis Jabr  was killed also. The bodies of three men, apparently Gaddafi bodyguards, lay at the entrance to the sewer, one in shorts probably due to a bandaged wound on his leg. Four more bodies lay at the other end of the pipes.

THE BODY ON PARADE

The fighters who captured and most likely killed Gaddafi are believed to have come from Misrata, which suffered a brutal weeks-long siege by his forces during the eight-month civil war.
It was to their home city that they took his body in an ambulance. The body was paraded through the streets of Misrata on top of a vehicle surrounded by a large crowd chanting, ‘The blood of the martyrs will not go in vain,’ according to footage aired on Al-Arabiya television.
JOY AND CARNAGE

 Amid the scenes of celebration in Sirte, the cost of the days of intensive assaults lay everywhere with dozens of the broken bodies of Gaddafi fighters still lying where they had been killed.

After the battle, revolutionaries began searching homes and buildings looking for any hiding Gaddafi fighters. At least 16 were captured, along with cases of ammunition and trucks loaded with weapons. Reporters saw revolutionaries beating captured Gaddafi men in the back of trucks and officers intervening to stop them.
Inside what had been the last redoubt of Gaddafi’s men, there was a scene of utter destruction: gaping holes in buildings, trees stripped of their branches, lamp-posts felled by artillery and traffic lights dangling by their cables. Discarded military uniforms of Gaddafi’s fighters littered the streets.

Government troops hoisted the red, black and green national flag above a large building in the centre of a newly-captured Sirte neighbourhood. ‘Libya is free from east to west,’ cried 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. I want to see my mother.’

I would have liked to have seen Gaddafi appear in front of the International Criminal Court to answer charges for his gross treatment of his own people.
And I wish we could have heard what Gaddafi knew about the Lockerbie atrocity. Amnesty International called for an independent inquiry into the circumstances of the death.