SIRTE, Libya – Former Libyan leader Munammar el-Qaddafi died of wounds suffered yesterday as fighters battling to complete an eight-month-old uprising against his rule overran his hometown, Sirte, Libya's interim rulers said. His killing, which came swiftly after his capture near Sirte, is the most dramatic single development in the Arab Spring revolts that have unseated rulers in Egypt and Tunisia and threatened the grip on power of the leaders of Syria and Yemen. "[Qaddafi] was also hit in his head," National Transitional Council official Abdel Majid Mlegta said. "There was a lot of firing against his group, and he died." Mlegta said earlier that Qaddafi, who was in his late 60s, was captured and wounded in both legs at dawn yesterday as he tried to flee in a convoy that NATO warplanes attacked. he said he had been taken away by an ambulance. There was no independent confirmation of his remarks.
An anti-Qaddafi fighter said Qaddafi had been found hiding in a hole in the ground and had said "Don't shoot, don't shoot" to the men who grabbed him. His capture followed within minutes of the fall of Sirte, a development that extinguished the last significant resistance by forces loyal to the deposed leader. The capture of Sirte and the death of Qaddafi means Libya's ruling NTC should now begin the task of forging a new democratic system, which it had said it would get under way after the city, built as a showpiece for Qaddafi's rule, had fallen. Qaddafi, wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of ordering the killing of civilians, was toppled by rebel forces on Aug 23 after 42 years of one-man rule.
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