20 Oct 2011

LIVE BLOG: Endgame for Gaddafi

Channel 4 News live-blogs the capture of Muammar Gaddafi in Sirte on 20 October 2011.

– Former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s death is confirmed
– Footage published of Gaddafi’s body being dragged through the streets
– David Cameron says Libya can now build a democratic future

18.00
The live blog is closing now. Go to www.channel4.com/news for more coverage of the aftermath of Muammar Gaddafi’s death, plus all the other news from home and abroad.

17.50
Video: footage emerges of a blood-stained Muammar Gaddafi being manhandled by his captors. He is seen propped up on the boot of a car, surrounded by gun-toting rebels.

17.40

“The death of Colonel Gaddafi, gruesome as the pictures appear, is a cause of family celebration here in Tripoli,” blogs Channel 4 News International Editor Lindsey Hilsum. “An eight-year-old boy told me, ‘Shakshoufa died.’ Shakshoufa means ‘fuzzy head’, and that’s what many Libyans call Gaddafi these days.”

17.30
Al-Jazeera showing footage of a wounded Colonel Gaddafi, his face blood-staned, alive at the moment of his capture by Libyan government forces in Sirte. Meanwhile, latest reports say Saif Gaddafi has been captured as is being held by NTC forces.

17.17
Prime Minister David Cameron calls today “a day to remember all of Colonel Gaddafi’s victims – from those who died in connection with the PanAm 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”.

Video: David Cameron on the death of Muammar Gaddafi

17.04
Video: Tripoli celebrates the death of Muammar Gaddafi

16.53
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon also called on “combatants on all sides” to “lay down their arms in peace”. An realistic aspiration?

16.35
Libya’s charge d’affaires in London says “40,000 martyrs” have given their lives to Libya in the fight to rid the country of Muammar Gaddafi.

16.27
Earlier this year Channel 4 News profiled Colonel Gaddafi and his family. Many of those we profiled have now perished. Click here to read our Who Knows Who page.

16.25
Al-Arabiya TV quotes a Libyan official saying that Gaddafi’s son, Saif, was captured by rebels as he fled Bani Walid in a convoy.

16.22
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, commenting from New York on the death of Muammar Gaddafi, says the event marks a “historic transition for Libya” and that this marks “the end of the beginning” for the country.

16.18
Video: eye-witness describes the death of Muammar Gaddafi.

16.16
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shown on the BBC reacting to the news of Gaddafi’s capture. “Wow!” she exclaims, reading from her BlackBerry.

16.11
A senior NTC military official has told Reuters that Mutassim Gaddafi, one of Muammar Gaddafi’s sons, has been killed by NTC fighters while trying to fight off his captors.

16.01
In August we reported that the NTC ( then still referred to as the “rebel council”) had asked Algeria to return Muammar Gaddafi’s wife and children. Today the NTC’s Jibril repeated that request.

16.00
Check our our photo gallery detailing the life and times of the man who ruled Libya for 42 years.

15.57
Jibril tells press conference that fighting is continuing in Wadi Adil. He suggests Saif Gaddafi may be there.  Other reports say Saif al-Islam’s convoy is under attack.

15.50
Speaking outside No.10 Downing Street, Prime Minister David cameron says people in Libya have a greater chance of building a strong and democratic future after the death of Muammar Gaddafi.

15.42

Positively the last city in Libya where Colonel Gaddafi would have been welcome would be Misrata, writes Channel 4 News Chief Correspondent Alex Thomson – comprehensively pounded by his forces during several weeks of bloody siege this year.

15.38
@LindseyHilsum tweets from Jibril press conference that Muammar Gaddafi was believed briefly to have been in southern Algeria last week. He told journalists the Gaddafi family had decided to fight their last fight in Sirte, where the colonel was born.

15.34
Al-Jazeera TV says Mutassim Gaddafi, one of the colonel’s sons, has been killed, as we as the former Libyan leader’s security chief.

15.33
@LindseyHilsum: Jibril says experts at morgue investigating how Gaddafi died. @LindseyHilsum also tweets that Jibril won’t say whether Gaddafi was captured alive.

15:31
@LindseyHilsum tweets that NTC chairman Jibril has confirmed the death of Muammar Gaddafi – “and Libyans all shout Allah Akbar”.

15.29
Al-Arabiya TV says Muammar Gaddafi’s corpse has reached Libyan city of Misrata.

15.27
Read our backgrounder on the life and times of the man who ruled Libya for 42 year: Gaddafi – from pariah to ally and back again.

15.25
Photo: Libyans in Tripoli celebrate news of the capture of Muammar Gaddafi.


15.18
Writing from Tripoli, the Libyan capital, Channel 4 News’s Lindsey Hilsum says: “Several Libyans I’ve spoken to say they wish Gaddafi had been captured alive – “Then we could put him in a big cage and treat him like a criminal.”

15.16
NTC Vice-Chairman Ghoga says the NTC will announce the liberation of all of Libya within hours – “maybe sooner”.

15.14
Reuters reports that the NTC information minister has said the body of Muammar Gaddafi is being taken to Misrata.

15.13
Al-Jazeera TV running pictures which appear to show the dead body of Muammar Gaddafi being dragged along the road.

15.11
Image: a Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) fighter looks through a large concrete pipe where ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was allegedly captured.

15.01
Libya TV has quoted a medical resource which says Muammar Gaddafi was killed because he was shot with bullets to the head and stomach.

15.00
A Libyan military leader tells Al-Arabiya TV that images of the dead Muammar Gaddafi will be broadcast shortly.

14.57
Al-Arabiya TV has run a live interview with the local governor of Sirte. He said the local governor of Misrata announced that Mutassim Gaddafi’s son had been killed, along with his father. He added that the pictures of their bodies will be shown later today in Misrata.

14.42
According to Al-arabiya reporter, Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi’s son, ran away from Bani Walid.

14.35
Video: celebratory gunshots in Sirte.

Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the NTC chairman, is said to be preparing to address the Libyan nation later today.

NTC spokesman Abdullah Barrassali told Sky News that Gaddafi was dead and that his body was being taken to Misrata. “He was shot in both legs and a bullet in the head,” Mr Barrassali said.

He added that Saif Gaddafi, one of Muammar Gaddafi’s sons, had been surrounded in the Libyan desert.

NTC press official Abdelrahman Busin told Channel 4 News he could not confirm that Gaddafi was dead.