Gaddafi’s death still shrouded in confusion

Varying accounts claim former Libyan leader was caught in crossfire, died from earlier wounds or was shot in head at close range Muammar Gaddafi is set to be buried at an undisclosed location on Friday as Nato meets to discuss the end of the military campaign that hastened the end of his 42-year rule over Libya. Authorities from the National Transitional Council (NTC), the interim authority which led the revolt against Gaddafi and ultimately supplanted him, reportedly remain uncertain about where and when the funeral should take place. Gaddafi’s death on Thursday – which, according to conflicting reports, ultimately came when he was caught in crossfire , bled to death from earlier wounds or was executed at close range – is likely to bring an imminent end to the Nato aim campaign, which decisively turned the military campaign in the NTC’s favour. The French foreign minister, Alain Juppe – whose country’s planes, operating under the Nato remit, are believed to have attacked Gaddafi’s convoy as it fled his besieged home town of Sirte – said on Friday that the operation was over. “I think we can say that the military operation is finished, that the whole of Libyan territory is under the control of the National Transitional Council and that, subject to a few transitory measures in the week to come, the Nato operation has arrived at its end,” he told Europe 1 radio. Nato chiefs are due to gather in Brussels to discuss arrangements for the end of the campaign. The organisation’s secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. has said only that it will be halted “in co-ordination with the United Nations and the National Transitional Council”. The British foreign secretary, William Hague, has said this should only happen once the alliance is certain that no significant pockets of Gaddafi support remain. While Gaddafi’s death has brought global reactions ranging from jubilation to quiet relief, little is certain about how the 69-year-old met his end other than that he was alive when first held by NTC forces near Sirte. Shakily filmed mobile phone video footage shows a dazed, bloodied but conscious Gaddafi being dragged off the bonnet of a vehicle as someone shouts: “Keep him alive!” Other footage, also broadcast around the world, shows his lifeless body, drenched in more blood, being paraded through the nearby city of Misrata. What happened between is the subject of several contradictory versions. A reasonably coherent and consistent account has emerged of what led Gaddafi to the moment of capture. It seems that early on Thursday morning, as it became clear that forces protecting the former leader could not hold out much longer, a convoy of vehicles carrying him, his army chief, Abu Bakr Younis Jabr, and a few dozen bodyguards, drove out of the blockade and headed west. Soon after leaving Sirte, the convoy was devastated by a Nato raid carried out by French fighter jets. Reporters who witnessed the aftermath of the attack saw more than a dozen burned-out armed pickup trucks, with up to 50 bodies lying in or near the vehicles. It seems Gaddafi was caught up in this strike, but survived. One of his personal bodyguards, Mansour Daou, told al-Arabiya television that the survivors “split into groups and each group went its own way” after the attack. He added: “I was with Gaddafi and Abu Bakr Younis Jabr and about four volunteer soldiers.” Daou said he did not know what eventually happened to Gaddafi, as he had been wounded and knocked unconscious by a shell blast. It seems Gaddafi and his dwindling band of protecters ran through trees and sheltered inside a pair of rubbish-filled drainage pipes, where they were attacked by NTC forces. “At first we fired at them with anti-aircraft guns, but it was no use,” one NTC fighter, Salem Bakeer, told Reuters. “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.” By this time, the deposed dictator had gunshot wounds to his leg and back, Bakeer added. The confusion comes next. According to an official version of events by the interim prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril , the vehicle transporting Gaddafi to hospital was “caught in crossfire” as NTC and pro-Gaddafi forces fought further. A post-mortem report showed that the fatal shot had hit Gaddafi in the head, Jibril said, adding that it was not clear which side had fired the bullet. However, Fathi Bashagha, a spokesman for the Misrata Military Council, which commanded the fighters who captured him, said Gaddafi died from his wounds as an ambulance took him the 120 miles (193km) to Misrata. Another NTC official, Abdel Majid Mlegta, said: “He was bleeding from his stomach. It took a long time to transport him. He bled to death.” A further NTC official, who asked not to be named, told the agency: “They (NTC fighters) beat him very harshly, and then they killed him. This is a war.” In yet another possibility, the New York Times said later photographs of Gaddafi dead showed what forensic experts said appeared to be wounds to the head caused by bullets fired at close range, indicating that he might have been executed in this way. Amnesty International has urged the NTC to carry out “a full, independent and impartial inquiry to establish the circumstances of Colonel Gaddafi’s death”. As yet, there has been no similar pressure from world leaders. The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, speaking in Islamabad, said Gaddafi’s death “has brought to a close a very unfortunate chapter in Libya’s history”. She continued: “It also marks the start of a new era for the Libyan people, and it is our hope that what I saw in Tripoli on Tuesday first hand, the eagerness of Libyans to building a new democracy, can begin in earnest.” Muammar Gaddafi Arab and Middle East unrest Libya Middle East Africa Peter Walker guardian.co.uk

Posted by on October 21, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.