Deposed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has died of wounds suffered in his capture near his hometown of Sirte, according to a senior National Transitional Council military official and a government minister.
"He was killed in an attack by the fighters. There is footage of that," the NTC's information minister, Mahmoud Shammam, told Reuters.
The military official, Abdel Majid Mlegta, told Reuters that Gadhafi was taken at dawn on Thursday as he tried to flee in a convoy that NATO warplanes had attacked.
"There was a lot of firing against his group and he died," said Mlegta.
Western powers, who have backed the rebellion which took the capital Tripoli two months ago, said they were still checking into the reports. NATO said its aircraft fired on a convoy near Sirte earlier, but would not confirm reports that Gadhafi had been a passenger.
AFP news agency provided a photograph that appeared to show a wounded or dead Gadhafi. The image has not been independently verified.
Al-Arabiya said on its website Thursday that it had been granted permission to photograph Gadhafi's body. The images would be broadcast shortly, the station said, citing a Libyan military leader. It didn't give further details.
NBC's Adrienne Mong, reporting from Sirte, saw a massive convoy heading West toward Misrata. Gadhafi's body was rumored to be in the convoy, she reported, but NBC could not confirm that.
Rebels also said they had captured Gadhafi's son, Mo'tassim, alive in Sirte, Arab news channels Al Jazeera TV and Al-Arabiya reported.
The White House was saying little Thursday morning about developments as it waited for official confirmation from Libya. Past reports of Gadhafi family deaths or captures have proven incorrect.
Even before official U.S. confirmation of Gadhafi's fate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., reacting to reports that Gadhafi was dead, hailed "an end to the first phase of the Libyan revolution." The U.S. and Europe "must now deepen our support of the Libyan people," McCain, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.
NATO and the U.S. State Department said they could not confirm the reports, but were attempting to find out exactly what had happened.
"We are checking and assessing the situation,"' a NATO official said. "Clearly these are very significant developments, which will take time to confirm. If it is true, then this is truly a historic day for the people of Libya.''
Military official Mlegta reported Gadhafi's death after Libyan interim government fighters took Sirte on Thursday, extinguishing the last significant resistance by forces loyal to the former leader.
Col. Roland Lavoie, spokesman for NATO's operational headquarters in Naples, Italy, said the alliance's aircraft Thursday morning struck two vehicles of pro-Gadhafi forces "which were part of a larger group maneuvering in the vicinity of Sirte," the AP reported.
Mlegta said Gadhafi was taken away by ambulance after NATO's attack.
But NATO officials, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance to alliance rules, said the alliance also could not independently confirm whether Gadhafi was killed or captured.
Gadhafi's head of armed forces, Abu Bakr Younus Jabr, was killed during the attack, NTC's Mlegta said. Ahmed Ibrahim, a cousin and adviser of Gadhafi, was captured along with former government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim, he added.
A Libyan government fighter gave an apparently different account of Gadhafi's capture to the one provided by Mlegta. The unnamed fighter claimed Gadhafi was hiding in a hole, shouting, "Don't shoot, don't shoot," when he was caught.
Source: MSNBC
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