Gaddafi confirmed died in Sirte

After apparent air strike, deposed Libyan leader pulled from sewage pipe and dragged through streets of hometown; at least one of strongman’s sons also reported dead.

Muammar Gaddafi died on Thursday, succumbing to wounds sustained after fighters discovered the deposed autocrat hiding in a sewage pipe while trying to flee his final redoubt of Sirte.

Gory cell-phone footage appeared to show the fugitive strongman being dragged through the streets of his hometown while still alive, as throngs of Libyans beat the bloodied 69-year-old until he died.
Conflicting reports continued to emerge Thursday night, though one chronology pieced together from various sources suggests Gaddafi tried to break out of Sirte at dawn in a convoy of vehicles after weeks of dogged resistance.

According to those reports, he was stopped by a French air strike and captured, possibly some hours later, after gun battles with rebel fighters who found him hiding in a drainage culvert.

Gadhafi's killing caps a revolt that began in February and left him a fugitive for the past two months. The mercurial former army officer, who seized power in a 1969 coup, was the third Arab leader ousted in the Arab Spring upheavals that began in neighboring Tunisia in January.
Also killed Thursday were Gadhafi's son Mutassim and his chief of intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi, said Anees al-Sharif, a spokesman for the National Transitional Council's military arm in Tripoli.
Fawaz Gerges, a professor of Middle Eastern politics at the London School of Economics, said Libyans still face a difficult political struggle. But, he added, "We should not underestimate the significance of this day."
"Gadhafi was the head of the state, the most important symbol of the country. He repeatedly tried to rally his supporters to fight on," Gerges said. "I hope that this particular day will not just mean the end of an era but basically represent the beginning of a new era."
Gerges said the recent fighting around Sirte and another holdout of pro-Gadhafi loyalists, Bani Walid, exposed "some major tribal and regional cleavages" that Libyans will have to bridge in forming a new government. Those differences "could easily escalate, given the extent and the intensity of differences in Libya."
But he said Gadhafi's death sends a signal to other strongmen in the region: "If you oppress your people, if you don't engage your civil society, if you stay in power for so many years, this will be your end."
The confirmation of his death came after hours of conflicting reports on the deposed leader's status. When those reports first reached U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a visit to Afghanistan, she reacted with one word: "Wow."
Clinton said the end of Gadhafi would "add legitimacy and relief to the formation of a new government." And in a brief address from the White House, President Barack Obama praised Libyans for lifting "the dark shadow of tyranny" with the aid of Western air power.
"One year ago, the notion of a free Libya seemed impossible," Obama said. "But then the Libyan people rose up and demanded their rights. And when Gadhafi and his forces started going city to city, town by town, to brutalize men, women and children, the world refused to stand idly by."
NATO, spearheaded by Britain and France, backed up the revolt by bombarding pro-Gadhafi forces. In a statement from his office, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Gadhafi's ouster marks the start of "a new era ... one of reconciliation in unity and freedom."
And British Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday "is a day to remember all of Colonel Gadhafi's victims," including the 270 dead in the bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 and "the many, many Libyans who died at the hands of this brutal dictator and his regime."