Gaddafi Dead: Details of His Last Days
Gaddafi Scrambled For Security In the Days Leading Up to Death
Libya’s ex-dictator Muammar Gaddafi spent his last weeks frantically seeking refuge from rebel forces in his hometown of Sirte, according to his bodyguard of 31 years Mansour Dao.
"[Gaddafi was] alternating between rage and despair as his regime crumbled around him,” wrote the Huffington Post.
Dao told the Huffington Post that Gaddafi spent his days reading and writing, and that loyalist forces would seek refuge from rebels in abandoned houses.
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Dao contended that Gaddafi did not express fear in the days leading to the bombing of his convoy Thursday, Oct. 20.
“Mostly, he was just sad and angry,” Dao said.
“He believed the Libyan people still loved him, even after we told him that Tripoli had been occupied,” he added.
Critics suggested a primary reason intelligence forces could track Gaddafi, who they had been chasing through the Libyan desert since August, was because they picked up his mobile cell phone signals using voice recognition. Gaddafi had always upheld a strict no cell phone rule, except for the days leading up to his death.
Gaddafi’s body was made available for public viewing in a commercial freezer in the coastal town of Misrata for four days. He was finally buried Tuesday morning in an undisclosed desert location, closing the chapter on his 42-year rule over Libya.
The location of Gaddafi’s buried body remains secret to prevent desecration or shrines built in his honor.
The bodies of Gaddafi’s son, Mutassim, and his former Defense Minister Abu Bakr Younis were also buried in the desert.
According to a Senior NATO official, ex-dictator Muammar Gaddafi was wounded in an air strike that took place Thursday morning, Oct. 20. In the airstrike, a French Mirage Jet and a U.S. predator drone fired weapons, including a Hellfire missile, into Gaddafi's convoy. Gaddafi's green getaway vehicle was damaged in the attack.
It has been claimed that Gaddafi escaped the air attack with injuries, fleeing by foot and taking refuge with his body guards in a nearby concrete sewer tunnel located in a drainage ditch, where he was found by the Misrata Military Council.
Officials are adamant that the tyrant was not executed but killed in crossfire with his own supporters. However, numerous reports have indicated that he was likely executed by a rebel mob that had formed around him when they had realized whom they had captured.
An informal execution without chance for trial would not shed a favorable light on Libya’s government, which is attempting to assert itself as a prominent force in western politics.
The international community, including secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Britain’s Defense Secretary Philip Hammond, are calling for a detailed investigation of the circumstances surrounding Gaddafi’s death.
Gaddafi remained in hiding since rebel forces seized the capital of Tripoli, and only emerged to call upon his loyalists to take back the country from “devils and traitors.”
Although he was ousted from power in late August, Gaddafi loyalists continued to resist the new Libyan government, prolonging an eight-month civil war and halting the country’s political progression.
The media is circulating footage of Libyans celebrating the death of Gaddafi. Transitional government leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil declared an official end to the eight-month civil war and Libya’s liberation on Sunday in Benghazi.
“This revolution was looked after by God to achieve victory,” he told the massive crowd of thousands, which gathered, to celebrate.
