Thanks to Ivorybill in Green Square for the image.
Yet to be double sourced, but if true, this is good news for the Arab Spring, Human Rights and International Law – according to Reuters
Deposed Libyan leader Muammar 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.
I hope he recovers and is put on trial. As anyone who has followed my diaries on this knows, I think UN intervention in Libya was necessary under the Responsiblity to Protect doctrine and to support the Arab Spring. I think Power, Rice and Clinton played a blinder by persuading Obama to join France, the UK and the Arab League in degrading Gaddafi’s army.
For more on the politics behind the scenes of that decision, do read the Rolling Stone piece Inside Obama’s War Room
Al Jazeera is running this. Rumours of death in a hospital in Misrata might not be incompatible with such a severe injury:
Libyan TV is reporting that Muammar Gaddafi has been captured by NTC fighters in Sirte.
Jamal abu-Shaalah, a field commander of NTC, told told Al Jazeera that the toppled leader had been seized, but it was not clear whether he was dead or alive.
Gaddafi is captured and is wounded in both legs, Abdel Majid, another NTC official, told the Reuters news agency.
“He’s captured. He’s wounded in both legs … He’s been taken away by ambulance,” the senior NTC military official said.
An NTC official also said that Abu Bakr Younus Jabr, the head of Gaddafi’s armed forces, was killed during the capture of Gaddafi.
4:59 AM PT: More details from Reuters
Gaddafi was trying to flee in a convoy which NATO warplanes attacked, Majid said. The head of Gaddafi’s armed forces Abu Bakr Younus Jabr had been killed during the capture of the Libyan ex-leader, he added.
Majid said NATO warplanes struck the convoy and hit four cars as it headed west. Ahmed Ibrahim, a cousin and adviser of Gaddafi, was also captured.
In the capital Tripoli, sounds of gun shots were heard and people cheered in the street: “God is Great, God is Great, Gaddafi has been captured.”
5:12 AM PT: The NTC is just about to hold a news conference. This will confirm the details of the death/capture of Gaddafi after 41 years terrorizing Libya
5:16 AM PT: Nice tweet below from Rhoda
@JeffersonObama How true! Obama 10 – Bush 0. Captured or killed dictators or terrorists. Cheney said he made the US unsafe Ha!!
5:28 AM PT: Libyan television is saying Gaddafi is dead, and the Guardian has published a grisly picture of his body
5:39 AM PT: It’s looking more and more like someone else was shot in the legs, and Gaddafi was hit in a convoy. According to the BBC
We are waiting for clear confirmation from the NTC in Benghazi,” says Mahmoud Shammam, an NTC spokesman in Tripoli. “I can confirm there was a convoy,” he told BBC World Service. “But I cannot confirm what the big fish was”.
5:43 AM PT: The Guardian has a good precis of the current state of confusion
Killed: NTC commander Abdel-Basit Haroun said Gaddafi was killed when an airstrike hit a convoy trying to flee Sirte. National Transitional Council official Abdel Majid Mlegta told Reuters. “There was a lot of firing against his group and he died.
NTC spokesman in Misrata Abdullah Berrassali told Sky News: “Gaddafi is dead, absolutely dead. He was shot in both legs and a bullet in the head. The body will be arriving in Misrata any minute now.” Libyan TV and al-Jazeera are also reporting that Gaddafi is dead.
Captured: Misrata Military Council, one of the multiple command groups for the new government, says its fighters captured Gadhafi in Sirte.
Unconfirmed: A spokesman for Libya’s transitional government, Jalal al-Gallal, and its military spokesman Abdul-Rahman Busin say the reports have not been confirmed. Nato and the US state department could not confirm any of the reports.
5:45 AM PT: That photo could work either way
ravisomaiya Ravi Somaiya
AFP says this photo shows Gaddafi injured and in rebel hands: yfrog.com/h0fz2xzj (via @lindapalermo)
5:59 AM PT: On the Al Jazeera English Live Blog
Muammar Gaddafi was killed in an attack by NTC forces, the Council’s information minister Mahmoud Shammam told Reuters.
6:14 AM PT: For various reasons, more personal than nationalistic, I’m going with the BBC, and the detail about the NTC fighters who found in a hole in a sector of Sirte with three gold pistols
Abdullah Razad, who represents Tripoli in the NTC, told the corporation’s Russian Service: “I got confirmation of his death a couple of minutes ago. This is it. What other confirmation do you need?”
Hope I’m right, for journalistic reasons, though I would have preferred him captured alive – but captured dead is good enough, for all the future lives that have been saved had he and his forces been allowed to continue their fight.
6:16 AM PT: Images of his hiding place here
http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/…
7:01 AM PT: New Gaddafi picture
7:38 AM PT: The NTC has confirmed that Muammar Gaddafi is dead. There are mixed reports of the fate of his most prominent son Saif, who is said to have been killed in an air strike on his convoy, or to be engaged in a current gun battle.
8:41 AM PT: Tarantinodork makes a very good point below
Behind Osama Bin Laden, no terrorist leader was responsible for the deaths of more American civilians than Muammar Gaddafi.
But beyond his well documented support for Middle Eastern and European terrorists in the 80s, was his support for many of the worst dictators and murderous thugs throughout Africa.
Foday Sankoh of the RUF death squads, Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast, Charles Taylor of Liberia were all trained in Gaddafi’s terrorist training camps. He sent troops to aid Idi Amin of Uganda. Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe relied on him for financial and military support. He wa
s even the man who built up the Janjaweed militias of Darfur as an army of genocide.Infinitely more than Saddam Hussein ever was, Muammar Gaddafi was a man who exported genocide, oppression, and terrorism around the globe.
This brings justice to more than just the brave people of Libya. This is a victory for human people, everywhere.
9:04 AM PT: From the Guardian Liveblog – NATO mission accomplished an official says
A military assessment of the current situation in Libya and a recommendation for the wrapping up of the Nato operation is on its way to Nato HQ. This will most likely prompt a special meeting of the North Atlantic Council tomorrow to consider the recommendation and decide on the future of the current mission.
54 comments