Gaddafi reported dead

Posted Oct 20, 2011

Global Post

Al JazeeraA screen grab from Al Jazeera of a video said to show Muammar Gaddafi's body. Gaddafi is dead after being wounded during his capture in Sirte, Libya, on October 20, 2011, according to unconfirmed reports.

Read updates here: Gaddafi dead, eyewitness recounts final moments

Muammar Gaddafi is dead after being seriously wounded in his capture Thursday near Sirte, Libya, according to GlobalPost sources in Sirte and officials with the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC).

There are multiple reports that Gaddafi's body has been taken to a secret location in Misrata, about 125 miles to the west of Sirte.

"Gaddafi's body is with our unit in a car and we are taking the body to a secret place for security reasons," an NTC official told Reuters.

Gaddafi's body is now in Misrata and being kept in a mosque, Al Jazeera says.

Al Jazeera has shown an image that appears to be of Gaddafi's body, from a video the television network said it had acquired.

"We announce to the world that Gaddafi has been killed at the hands of the revolution," NTC spokesman Abdel Hafez Ghoga said, Agence France-Presse reports.

"It is an historic moment. It is the end of tyranny and dictatorship. Gaddafi has met his fate," he said.

Sources in Sirte told GlobalPost correspondent James Foley that Gaddafi had been mortally wounded while being captured, and the former Libyan leader died in the ambulance.

Rebel fighter Imad Moustaf, who claimed to be an eyewitness to Gaddafi's capture, said he saw Gaddafi with serious wounds to the head and near to his heart.

More from GlobalPost: Gaddafi dead, eyewitness recounts final moments

Moustaf said Gaddafi was captured on the outskirts of the western roundabout of Sirte, where he was hiding in a hole with bodyguards.

Sirte is Gaddafi's birthplace and the site of fierce battles in recent weeks between pro-Gaddafi forces and fighters for Libya's National Transitional Council.

More from GlobalPost: Libya: Sirte liberated by anti-Gaddafi forces

The U.S. State Department has not confirmed whether Gaddafi has been killed.

Reuters reports that Gaddafi died after being wounded in the head and both legs while being captured.

"He was also hit in his head," National Transitional Council official Abdel Majid Mlegta told Reuters. "There was a lot of firing against his group and he died."

Al Jazeera has also reported that Gaddafi is dead, having died of wounds sustained in a gun battle.

Gaddafi's death has not been independently confirmed.

Earlier it was reported that Gaddafi has been captured near Sirte.

This article originally appeared on GlobalPost.