Gadhafi's death still a mystery

A duck swims near a destroyed building in the area where Muammar Gadhafi was hiding out in Sirte on Friday. The burial of Gadhafi has been delayed for a few days until Libya's new rulers decide where to bury him, the oil minister said on Friday, but another transition government official said there was disagreement over what to do with his body. [Photo/Agencies]

SIRTE, Libya - As people poured into the streets in jubilation with the news of Muammar Gadhafi's demise, the answer to the question of how exactly did Gadhafi die remained obscure.

Only certain thing is that he was alive when first held by NTC forces near Sirte.

Conflicting reports showed he was either caught in crossfire later, bled to death from earlier wounds, or was executed at close range.

Jerky mobile phone video showed a man with Gadhafi's distinctive long, curly hair, bloodied and staggering under blows from armed men, apparently National Transition Committee (NTC) fighters.

The brief footage showed him being hauled by his hair from the hood of a truck. To the shouts of someone saying "Keep him alive", he disappears from view and gunshots ring out.

Another footage, which was also broadcast around the world, showed his lifeless body was drenched in more blood, being paraded through the nearby city of Misrata.

The leader of Gadhafi's personal bodyguards said the former strongman had survived an airstrike on his convoy.

"I was with Gadhafi and Abu Bakr Younis Jabr (head of Gadhafi's army) and about four volunteer soldiers," Mansour Daou told al Arabiya television. He said he had not witnessed the final moments of his leader because he had fallen unconscious from a wound.

"At first we fired at them with anti-aircraft guns, but it was no use," one NTC fighter, Salem Bakeer, told Reuters. "Then we went in on foot.

"One of Gadhafi'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 Gadhafi must have told them to stop. 'My master is here, my master is here. Muammar Gadhafi is here and he is wounded.'

"We went in and brought Gadhafi 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, he had gunshot wounds to his leg and back, Bakeer added.

According to the interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, the vehicle transporting Gadhafi to hospital was "caught in crossfire" as NTC and pro-Gadhafi forces fought further.

A post-mortem report showed that the fatal shot had hit Gadhafi in the head, Jibril said, adding that it was not clear which side had fired the bullet.

A NTC official, Abdel Majid Mlegta, said: "He was bleeding from his stomach. It took a long time to transport him. He bled to death."

However, a senior source in the NTC said before Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril spoke of crossfire that, "while he was being taken away, they beat him and then they killed him. This is a war. He might have been resisting".

The New York Times said later photographs of Gadhafi showed what forensic experts said appeared to be wounds to the head caused by bullets fired at close range, indicating that he might have been executed in this way.

The United Nations human rights office called on Friday for a full investigation into the death of Gadhafi.

"It is unclear how he died. There is a need for an investigation," UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing in Geneva.

Referring to separate cell phone images showing a wounded Gadhafi first alive and then later dead amid a jumble of anti-Gadhafi fighters after his capture in his hometown of Sirte on Thursday, he added: "Taken together, they were very disturbing."

An international commission of inquiry, launched by the UN Human Rights Council, is already investigating killings, torture and other crimes in Libya.

Colville said he expected that the team would look into the circumstances of Gadhafi's death.

"It is a fundamental principle of international law that people accused of serious crimes should if possible be tried. Summary executions are strictly illegal. It is different if someone is killed in combat," he said.

Reuters