Gaddafi: Bloody end for brutal dictator

Ambushed by revolutionary fighters as he tried to flee his birthplace of Sirte, Gaddafi was shot in front of a baying mob of troops as he begged for mercy.

Footage emerged of a blooded Gaddafi – said to have already suffered injuries to his leg and back during airstrikes on a convoy he was travelling in – being jostled before being bundled on to a truck.

As Gaddafi was being manhandled, his face and shirt soaked in blood, they chanted: “God is great.”

Libyan television pictures also showed images of the dictator’s body being dragged along the ground.

It is understood his body was then moved to a mosque in the town of Misrata, scene of some of the fiercest fighting earlier in the rebellion which ousted him from power.

There were reports last night that Gaddafi, wielding one of his iconic golden guns, had been shot after making a last desperate bid for freedom when he was discovered in the hide-out.

One graphic picture appeared to show a bullet hole visible in his temple, although the exact circumstances of his death remained unclear.

After several hours of uncertainty and contradictory reports yesterday, his death was finally announced by Mahmoud Jibril, Libya’s prime minister, who said simply: “We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Muammar Gaddafi has been killed.”

Speaking outside 10 Downing Street minutes later, Prime Minister David Cameron said: “People in Libya today have an even greater chance, after this news, 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.”

US president Barack Obama said Gaddafi’s death “marks the end of a long and painful chapter” for Libya.

He added: “One of the world’s longest-serving dictators is no more. The dark shadow of tyranny has been lifted..”

Nato, which had carried out airstrikes on Sirte yesterday led by French warplanes, is today expected to confirm the seven-month bombing campaign over Libya will be brought to a halt.

Although relatives of American victims of the Lockerbie disaster celebrated Gaddafi’s demise, veteran Scottish campaigner Dr Jim Swire said an “opportunity has been lost” to find out the truth about the 1988 atrocity.

He added: “Although we have not a scrap of evidence Gaddafi himself was involved in causing the Lockerbie atrocity, my take on that was that he would have at least known who was.”

First Minister Alex Salmond, who branded Gaddafi a “brutal dictator”, said the Scottish Government stood ready to investigate any new lines of inquiry into the Lockerbie disaster which emerged in the wake of his death.

Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Gaddafi’s death marked “an historic transition for Libya” and called on combatants on all sides to lay down their arms.

“The road ahead for Libya and its people will be difficult and full of challenges,” he added.

Shortly before dawn prayers yesterday, Gaddafi and a small band of loyalists had decided to break cover from the buildings in the central Green Square they had barricaded themselves inside for the last two months.

But as their convoy of vehicles reached around two miles outside the city, Nato aircraft struck. Although Gaddafi and a handful of his men escaped, a group of rebel fighters were soon in pursuit.

Gaddafi reportedly begged for his life, asking one rebel fighter: “What did I ever do to you?”

Reports last night suggested 18-year-old Ahmed Al-Shebani, who was pictured brandishing Gaddafi’s famous golden gun, was the one who claimed his life.

Mr Al-Shebani said Gaddafi had said simply “don’t shoot” before he opened fire. He was subsequently hoisted on to the shoulders of his fellow fighters.

However, Fathi Bashaga, spokesman for the Misrata military council, whose forces were involved in the Sirte siege, had a different account of the tyrant’s death. He said fighters encircled the convoy and exchanged fire with several of the vehicles.

In one, they found Gaddafi, wounded in the neck, and took him to an ambulance. Gaddafi bled to death from his wounds half-an-hour later, he said.

Abdel-Jalil Abdel-Aziz, a doctor who was part of the medical team that accompanied the body in the ambulance, said Gaddafi died from two bullet wounds, to the head and chest.

Libyans gathered in towns and cities across the country to celebrate as reports of the dictator’s death spread.

In Sirte, the former rebels celebrated the city’s fall after weeks of bloody siege by firing rounds into the sky, pumping their guns, knives and even a meat cleaver in the air and singing the national anthem.

Britain has played a prominent role in the Nato-led international military effort to protect Libyan civilians under the terms of a UN resolution passed in March, following the uprising against Gaddafi the month before. But Downing Street played down any suggestion of UK military involvement in the fugitive dictator’s death.

Mr Cameron added: “I think today is a day to remember all of Colonel Gaddafi’s victims, from those who died in connection with the Pan-Am flight over Lockerbie to Yvonne Fletcher in a London street and obviously all the victims of IRA terrorism who died through their use of Libyan Semtex. We should also remember the many, many Libyans who died at the hands of this brutal dictator and his regime.”

Last month, officials from the NTC told the UK government they would co-operate with Scottish prosecutors and police investigating the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted of the atrocity which killed 270 people when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie four days before Christmas in 1988, was freed from Greenock prison in August 2009 on compassionate grounds because he had terminal prostate cancer, and was only expected to live for another three months.

Mr Salmond said: “The Crown Office have always said that the Lockerbie atrocity remains an open case. The only person convicted, al-Megrahi, acted in his capacity as a Libyan intelligence agent. He was found guilty of an act of state-sponsored terrorism and did not act alone.

“Therefore our police and prosecution authorities stand ready to investigate and follow any new lines of inquiry that may be emerging in Libya at the present moment.”

But one family member of one of the victims of the atrocity said “standing ready” was not enough.

Pamela Dix, who lost her 35-year-old brother Peter in the Lockerbie bombing, said: “It must be a very chaotic time in Libya at the moment and of course this [the Lockerbie bombing] is not going to be a high priority for the authorities there just now.

“But when it has settled down I do not want the Scottish Government just to stand ready. I want them to be pro-active and not wait to see what emerges.”