(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Controversial stories emerged on Thursday concerning the killing of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
A footage which was broadcast on TV channels on Thursday showed the strongman alive when first held by NTC (Nartional Transitional Council) forces near Sirte.
In this footage Gaddafi appeared dazed and bloodied, but conscious. He was being dragged off the bonnet of a vehicle as someone shouts: "Keep him alive!"
However, a second footage showed his lifeless body, drenched in blood, paraded through the nearby city of Misrata.
What has really happened to the strongman? Why he was killed? These have been questions asked by many people, especially those who was oppressed by Gaddafi’s regime, those who lost their lives or relatives there in Libya.
THE WHOLE STORY
According to The Guardian, a “reasonably coherent and consistent” account has emerged of what led Gaddafi to the moment of capture.
The daily picked up details from here and there, saying that Gaddafi’s convoy was targeted by a NATO strike, probably American and French jets were involved in the raid, and then attacked by NTC fighters.
“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 Baqer 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 protectors ran through trees and sheltered inside a pair of rubbish-filled drainage pipes, where they were attacked by NTC forces”, the daily added.
"At first we fired at them with anti-aircraft guns, but it was no use," one NTC fighter, Salem Baqer, 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”, Baqer said.
"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.
CONFUSION
The confusion comes next. The interim Prime Minister, Mahmoud Jibril, said the vehicle transporting Gaddafi to hospital was "caught in crossfire" as NTC and pro-Gaddafi forces fought further.
A postmortem report showed that the fatal shot had hit Gaddafi in the head, Jibril said, adding 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 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 Reuters: "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 he might have been executed in this way.
INVESTIGATION, BURIAL
For its part, Amnesty International has urged the NTC to carry out "a full, independent and impartial inquiry to establish the circumstances of Colonel Gaddafi's death".
On Friday, a spokesman for the UN high commissioner for human rights in Geneva said the shakily filmed mobile phone footage showing Gaddafi captured and alive but wounded, and then subsequently dead, was "very disturbing".
Rupert Colville said an existing UN panel investigating human rights abuses in Libya would probably examine Gaddafi's death.
On the other hand, senior member of the governing National Transitional Council said the burial of Gaddafi was delayed, adding that NTC had planned that the strongman would be buried at an undisclosed location.
/129
A footage which was broadcast on TV channels on Thursday showed the strongman alive when first held by NTC (Nartional Transitional Council) forces near Sirte.
In this footage Gaddafi appeared dazed and bloodied, but conscious. He was being dragged off the bonnet of a vehicle as someone shouts: "Keep him alive!"
However, a second footage showed his lifeless body, drenched in blood, paraded through the nearby city of Misrata.
What has really happened to the strongman? Why he was killed? These have been questions asked by many people, especially those who was oppressed by Gaddafi’s regime, those who lost their lives or relatives there in Libya.
THE WHOLE STORY
According to The Guardian, a “reasonably coherent and consistent” account has emerged of what led Gaddafi to the moment of capture.
The daily picked up details from here and there, saying that Gaddafi’s convoy was targeted by a NATO strike, probably American and French jets were involved in the raid, and then attacked by NTC fighters.
“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 Baqer 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 protectors ran through trees and sheltered inside a pair of rubbish-filled drainage pipes, where they were attacked by NTC forces”, the daily added.
"At first we fired at them with anti-aircraft guns, but it was no use," one NTC fighter, Salem Baqer, 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”, Baqer said.
"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.
CONFUSION
The confusion comes next. The interim Prime Minister, Mahmoud Jibril, said the vehicle transporting Gaddafi to hospital was "caught in crossfire" as NTC and pro-Gaddafi forces fought further.
A postmortem report showed that the fatal shot had hit Gaddafi in the head, Jibril said, adding 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 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 Reuters: "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 he might have been executed in this way.
INVESTIGATION, BURIAL
For its part, Amnesty International has urged the NTC to carry out "a full, independent and impartial inquiry to establish the circumstances of Colonel Gaddafi's death".
On Friday, a spokesman for the UN high commissioner for human rights in Geneva said the shakily filmed mobile phone footage showing Gaddafi captured and alive but wounded, and then subsequently dead, was "very disturbing".
Rupert Colville said an existing UN panel investigating human rights abuses in Libya would probably examine Gaddafi's death.
On the other hand, senior member of the governing National Transitional Council said the burial of Gaddafi was delayed, adding that NTC had planned that the strongman would be buried at an undisclosed location.
/129