Moammar Gadhafi Is Dead: NTC

Officials says he was wounded when NATO warplanes attacked his convoy
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 20, 2011 7:11 AM CDT
Updated Oct 20, 2011 7:58 AM CDT
Moammar Gadhafi Is Dead: NTC
A Libyan rebel fighter fires his machine gun toward loyalist positions down town Sirte, Libya, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011.   (AP Photo/Manu Brado)

Moammar Gadhafi is dead, according to the National Transitional Council. Libyan revolutionary fighters took the city of Sirte today, and in the process captured the former strongman, who was wounded in both legs while trying to flee the city in a convoy that NATO planes attacked, a senior NTC official tells Reuters. "He was also hit in his head," the official said. "There was a lot of firing against his group and he died." US officials are working to confirm the report. The Guardian has a photo that purports to depict a bloody Gadhafi here (Warning: it's graphic).

The strike also reportedly killed the head of Gadhafi's armed forces, Abu Bakr Younus Jabr. Earlier, AP reporters watched as rebels fought a 90-minute battle to rout pro-Gadhafi fighters from their remaining neighborhoods in Sirte, apparently ending the last major battle of the Libyan war. "Sirte has been liberated. There are no Gadhafi forces anymore," an NTC colonel said. "We are now chasing his fighters who are trying to run away." Not all Gadhafi forces are running through; the Telegraph says there are reports of some taking off their uniforms and firing indiscriminately on civilians. (Click for the latest updates on the death of Gadhafi.)

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