Suicide Bombing of NATO convoy kills 18

Afghanistan (AP) – A Taliban suicide bomber rammed a vehicle loaded with explosives into an armored NATO bus Saturday on a busy thoroughfare in Kabul, killing 17 people, including a dozen Americans, in the deadliest strike against the U.S.-led coalition in the Afghan capital since the war began.

The blast occurred on the same day that a man wearing an Afghan army uniform killed three Australian soldiers and an Afghan interpreter in the south — attacks that show the resiliency of the insurgency and are likely to raise new doubts about the unpopular 10-year-old war and the Western strategy of trying to talk peace with the Taliban.

A spokesman for the fundamentalist Islamic movement, which was ousted in the 2001 invasion for its affiliation with al-Qaida, claimed responsibility for the Kabul attack, saying the bomber had used 1,540 pounds of explosives.

The Taliban and related groups have staged more than a dozen major attacks in Kabul this year, including seven since June, in an apparent campaign to weaken confidence in the Afghan government as it prepares to take over its own security ahead of a 2014 deadline for the U.S. and other NATO countries to withdraw their troops or move them into support roles.

Underscoring the difficulties ahead, the brazen assault occurred just hours after top Afghan and Western officials met in the heart of Kabul to discuss the second phase of shifting security responsibilities to Afghan forces in all or part of 17 of the country's 34 provinces. Afghans already have the lead in the Afghan capital.

Heavy black smoke poured from the burning wreckage of an armored personnel carrier, known as a Rhino, in Kabul after the bomber struck. The bus had been sandwiched in the middle of a convoy of mine-resistant military vehicles when it was hit along a four-lane highway often used by foreign military trainers in the southwestern part of Kabul.

The landmark Darulaman Palace, the bombed-out seat of former Afghan kings, was the backdrop to the chaotic scene: Shrapnel, twisted pieces of metal and charred human remains littered the street.

U.S. soldiers wept as they pulled bodies from the debris, said Noor Ahmad, a witness at the scene. One coalition soldier was choking inside the burned bus, he said.

"The bottom half of his body was burned," Ahmad said.

NATO said five of its service members and eight civilian contractors working for the coalition died in the attack.

A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to release the information before a formal announcement, said all 13 were Americans. However, Lt. Col. Christian Lemay, a Canadian defense spokesman, told the Associated Press that one Canadian soldier was among the troops killed. The discrepancy could not immediately be reconciled.

It was the deadliest single attack against the U.S.-led coalition across the country since the Taliban shot down a NATO helicopter on Aug. 6 in an eastern Afghan province, killing 30 U.S. troops, most elite Navy SEALs, and eight Afghans.

The Afghan Ministry of Interior said four Afghans, including two children, also died in Saturday's attack. Eight other Afghans, including two children, were wounded, said Kabir Amiri, head of Kabul hospitals.

In all, there were three attacks Saturday against NATO and Afghan forces across the country.

A teenage girl also blew herself up as she tried to attack an Afghan intelligence office in the capital of Kunar province, a hotbed of militancy in northeast Afghanistan along the Pakistan border, the coalition said. Abdul Sabor Allayar, deputy provincial police chief, said the guards outside the government's intelligence office in Asad Abad became suspicious and started shooting, at which point the bomber detonated her explosives, killing herself and wounding several intelligence employees.

Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi said officials were investigating whether the man who opened fire on a joint NATO-Afghan base in the restive southern Uruzgan province was an actual soldier or a militant in disguise.

The Australian Broadcasting Corp. said the attack occurred during a morning parade at a forward patrol base in southern Kandahar province, and the gunman wearing an Afghan army uniform was later killed. The discrepancy in the location of the attack could not immediately be clarified.

In Canberra, the Defense Department said three Australlian soldiers and their Afghan interpreter were killed in the attack, and seven Australian soldiers were wounded.

"It's a huge loss," said U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker. "Our deepest sympathies go out to their comrades and families, but it will not deter us from our mission. It's a shock, but we will not let these guys win."

Just a day earlier, the Pentagon issued a progress report saying that the number of enemy-initiated attacks in Afghanistan was trending downward. Since May of this year, the monthly number of these attacks has been lower than the same month in 2010, something not seen since 2007, it said.

However, the Pentagon also noted that the insurgency's safe havens in Pakistan and the limited capacity of the Afghan government could jeopardize efforts to turn security gains on the battlefield, primarily in the south, into long-term stability in Afghanistan.

Saturday's attack broke a relative lull in the Afghan capital, which has experienced a number of attacks in recent years that are often blamed on the Haqqani network, an al-Qaida and Taliban-linked movement that operates out of Pakistan.

The most recent attack in Kabul was the Sept. 20 assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani by an insurgent who detonated a bomb hidden in his turban. The attacker was posing as a peace emissary coming to meet Rabbani, who was leading a government effort to broker peace with the Taliban.

That occurred about a week after teams of insurgents firing rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons struck at the U.S. Embassy, NATO headquarters and other buildings in the heart of Afghanistan's capital, leaving seven Afghans dead.

On Saturday, NATO and Afghan forces sealed off the blast area as fire trucks and ambulances, sirens blaring, rushed in. Coalition troops carried a badly burned body on a stretcher and several black body bags to two NATO helicopters that landed nearby to airlift casualties from the scene.

The Taliban identified the bomber as Abdul Rahman and said he was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser SUV containing 1,540 pounds (700 kilograms) of explosives and targeting foreigners providing training for Afghan police. The Taliban, who frequently exaggerate casualty claims, said that 25 people were killed by the blast.

A similar attack occurred on the same road in May 2010 when a suicide bomber struck a NATO convoy, killing 18 people. Among the dead were five U.S. soldiers and a Canadian colonel.

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Flood-wary Bangkok is contrast of misery, normalcy

On one side of Bangkok, you'll find the victims of Thailand's worst flooding in half a century. They float down trash-strewn waterways, paddling washtubs with wicker brooms over submerged neighborhoods.
Just a few miles (kilometers) away, you'll find something else entirely: well-heeled shoppers perusing bustling malls decorated with newly hung Halloween decorations and couples sipping espresso in the air-conditioned comfort of ultrachic cafes.

Although catastrophic flooding has devastated a third of this Southeast Asian nation and submerged some of the capital's northernmost districts, life is going on for the majority of this sprawling metropolis of 9 million people.

The desperate images of disaster contrast sharply with scenes of total normality -- from night-owls drinking cocktails in red-light districts to tourists enjoying relaxing foot massages in faux-leather chairs downtown.

An exodus of thousands of Bangkok residents to nearby resorts and a government-ordered five-day holiday have left the notoriously congested city unusually easy to maneuver by taxi and three-wheeled tuk-tuk.

"It's better, in a way," Nicole Attwater of Sydney said Sunday, adding that she was happy to brave some flooding to see the Grand Palace, the gold-studded former seat of the Thai monarchy, with far lighter crowds than normal on a sunny weekend morning.

"It's a good time to come, because it's quiet," she said.

Most of Bangkok is dry, with little to indicate that anything is wrong -- except for the ominous walls of sandbags stacked around hotels and homes, and the apocalyptic predictions of everyone from expatriate bloggers to some members of the Thai government.

Yet, the threat of floodwaters sweeping through the city is still real. Nationwide, 381 people have died in the flooding over the last three months, and 110,000 more have been displaced -- 10,000 of them in Bangkok, according to government figures. The catastrophe has put hundreds of thousands of people out of work and cost billions of dollars in damage -- a bill that grows larger by the day.

Among items struck from tourists' agendas: shopping for crafts at the popular Chatuchak weekend market and dinner cruises down the city's Chao Phraya river -- all canceled due to the high waters. The river swelled to a record high level early Sunday, spilling into some neighborhoods.

Fears over worse-case scenarios and travel warnings issued by foreign governments have slashed visitors by half at sites like the Grand Palace and the giant gold-plated Reclining Buddha inside Bangkok's Wat Pho temple complex.

But the biggest problem by far, said tour guide Keerati Atui, is the media, which he said have given the impression that most of Bangkok is under water.

"Look around," he said, gesturing to lines of tourists streaming into the palace. "It's dry. Everything here is normal

Gadhafi put on display in shopping center freezer

 MISRATA — Moammar Gadhafi’s blood-streaked body was on display in a commercial freezer at a shopping center Friday as Libyan authorities argued about what to do with his remains and questions deepened over official accounts of the longtime dictator’s death. New video emerged of his violent, chaotic last moments, showing fighters beating him as they drag him away.
Nearly every aspect of Thursday’s killing of Gadhafi was mired in confusion, a sign of the difficulties ahead for Libya. Its new rulers are disorganized, its people embittered and divided. But the ruling National Transitional Council said it would declare the country’s liberation on Saturday, the starting point for a timetable that calls for a new interim government within a month and elections within eight months.

The top U.N. rights chief raised concerns that Gadhafi may have been shot to death after being captured alive. The fate of his body seemed tied up in squabbles among Libya’s factions, as fighters from Misrata — a city brutally besieged by Gadhafi’s forces during the civil war — seemed to claim ownership of it, forcing the delay of a planned burial Friday.
Also muddled was the fate of Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, the only Gadhafi son who stayed in Libya and reportedly survived after his father’s Aug. 21 ouster. It appeared Friday that he was still at large: some government ministers had said he was wounded and in custody in a hospital in the city of Zlitan, but a military official at the hospital, Hakim al-Kisher, denied he was there.
In Misrata, residents crowded into long lines to get a chance to view the body of Gadhafi, which was laid out on a mattress on the floor of an emptied-out vegetable and onions freezer at a local shopping center. The body had apparently been stowed in the freezer in an attempt to keep it out of the public eye, but once the location was known, that intention was swept away in the overwhelming desire of residents to see the man they so deeply despised.
Men, women and children filed in to take their picture with the body. The site’s guards had even organized separate visiting hours for families and single men.
“We want to see the dog,” some chanted.
Gadhafi’s 69-year-old body was stripped to the waist, his torso and arms streaked with dried blood. Bullet wounds in the chest, abdomen and left side of the head were visible.
The bloody siege of Misrata over the summer instilled a particularly virulent hatred of Gadhafi there — a hatred now mixed with pride because he was captured and killed by fighters from the city.
New video posted on Facebook showed revolutionary fighters dragging a confused-looking Gadhafi up the hill to their vehicles after his capture and less than an hour before he was killed. The young men scream “Moammar, you dog!” as their former leader wipes at blood covering the left side of his head, neck and left shoulder.
Gadhafi gestures to the young men to be patient, and says “What’s going on?” as he wipes fresh blood from his temple and glances at his palm. A young fighter later is shown carrying a boot and screaming, “This is Moammar’s shoe! This is Moammar’s shoe! Victory! Victory!”
In Tripoli, joy over Gadhafi’s end spilled into a second day as thousands converged on central Martyrs’ Square for Friday prayers and celebrations. Men danced and hoisted the country’s new red-green-and-black flag.
“It’s the start of a new era that everybody hopes will bring security and freedom,” said Tarek Othman, a computer specialist. “I hope democracy is the path we take so all of these Libyans who have sacrificed will really feel free.”
He stood with his wife — who wore a cap in the revolution’s colors over her all-encompassing black niqab — in the square, which was formerly known as Green Square and was used by Gadhafi to stage rallies against the uprising.
Khaled Almslaty, a clothing vendor, said he wished Gadhafi had been captured alive.
“But I believe he got what he deserved because if we prosecuted him for the smallest of his crimes, he would be punished by death,” he said. “Now we hope the NTC will accelerate the formation of a new government and … won’t waste time on irrelevant conflicts and competing for authority and positions.”
It’s a tall order after nearly 42 years of rule by one man, who often acted according to whims and tolerated no dissent. Libya’s new leaders have stressed the need for reconciliation, but many factions are eager to have their say after years of repression.
The Western-backed NTC, a collection of former rebels, returned exiles, technocrats and Islamists, has always been united behind its goal of ousting Gadhafi. Now the group must overcome divisions and competing self-interests to rebuild the oil-rich North African nation, which was stripped of institutions under Gadhafi.
The NTC said interim leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil will formally declare liberation on Saturday in the eastern city of Benghazi, where the revolution began in mid-February. Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril has promised to resign, saying he will not be part of any new government and will instead turn his attention to fighting corruption.
The transitional council has asked the United Nations “to play a significant role” in helping them write a constitution, hold elections and build democratic institutions, Ian Martin, the U.N. envoy to Libya, said.
“No one should underestimate in this moment of celebration in Libya how great are the challenges that lie ahead,” he said. He also warned of “a major challenge in the future of those of the fighters who don’t wish to return to previous civilian occupations.”
Gadhafi was killed when revolutionary fighters overwhelmed him and the last of his loyalists in his coastal hometown Sirte, the last bastion of his regime to be captured after weeks of heavy fighting.
Authorities have promised to bury Gadhafi in accordance with Islamic traditions calling for quick interment, but Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam said the burial was delayed because officials were debating “what the best place is to bury him.”
Gadhafi’s family, most of whom are in Algeria or other nearby African nations, issued a statement calling for an investigation into how Gadhafi and another of his sons, Muatassim, were killed. In the statement on the pro-Gadhafi, Syria-based TV station Al-Rai, they asked for international pressure on the NTC to hand over the bodies of the two men to their tribe.
Gadhafi was captured alive and there have been contradictory accounts of how and when he received his fatal wounds. Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the images of his last moments were very disturbing.
“More details are needed to ascertain whether he was killed in some form of fighting or was executed after his capture,” Colville said.
According to most accounts from fighters on the ground and their commanders, Gadhafi and his loyalists were in a convoy trying to flee when NATO airstrikes hit two of the vehicles. Then revolutionary forces moved in and clashed with the loyalists for several hours.
Gadhafi and his bodyguards fled their cars and took refuge in a nearby drainage tunnel. Fighters pursued and clashed with them before Gadhafi emerged from the tunnel and was grabbed by fighters.
Most accounts agree that Gadhafi died from wounds 30 to 40 minutes later as an ambulance took him to Misrata. But accounts differ over how he suffered those wounds.
Most commanders and fighters at the scene with whom The Associated Press has spoken say that when he was captured, Gadhafi already was fatally wounded. In the videos of his capture, however, he has blood on his head, but none on his chest or abdomen. At one point, his shirt is pulled up to his chest, but no wound is visible.
Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam said Gadhafi was wounded after his capture. “It seems like the bullet was a stray and it could have come from the revolutionaries or the loyalists,” Shammam said.
Other fighters, commanders and witnesses have not spoken of any such crossfire or further clashes. Siraq al-Hamali, a 21-year-old fighter, told AP that he rode in the vehicle carrying Gadhafi as it left Sirte. He did not mention coming under fire and said Gadhafi died en route of wounds he already had.
Even reports of the coroner’s conclusions were confused over which wound was fatal — some said it was the shot to the head, others said it was a shot to the liver.
Muatassim, who had been his father’s feared national security adviser, was captured alive separately in Sirte, and how he died also remains unknown.
In a video aired Friday on Al-Rai, the 34-year-old Muatassim, wearing a bloodied undershirt, sits on a mattress in a room with fighters around him. He takes a swig of water and smokes a cigarette as he argues with at least one man who accused him of robbing the country and abusing its sons.
The fighter then orders Muatassim to say “Allahu Akbar” or “God is great” before the video cuts to a segment with Muatassim lying subdued on the mattress with his forearm on his forehead. He also appears to check for an injury on his collar bone. The last scene is of Muatassim lying dead, apparently in a hospital, with a huge gash in his chest.

Ahmadinejad slams NATO, denounces U.S. pressure in Middle East

Tehran (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday slammed NATO's role in Libya and said the United States -- and all other countries -- should stay out of the conflict in Syria.
"We think it is the will of the people that should work and prevail everywhere. Justice, freedom and respect to people -- this is the right of all nations," he said in an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria.
Ahmadinejad said his views on Libya were "not different" following the death Thursday of ousted Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi. He said NATO's military campaign exacerbated the conflict and undermined the sovereignty of the nation.
Ahmadinejad also took aim at the United States, saying the country is "hated" in the Middle East and should keep out of regional affairs, such as in Syria, where a brutal government crackdown on protesters has drawn international ire.
"We should respect independence and sovereignty of all nations everywhere in the world," he said. "We condemn killings and massacre. ... Justice dictates that nobody should kill the other. Nobody has the right to kill others -- neither the government nor the opponents. ... We are going to make greater efforts to encourage both the government of Syria and the other side and all parties to reach an understanding. There should be no interference from outside."
Syria is widely considered Iran's closest ally in the Middle East. Leaders in both countries have been criticized for brutally repressing democratic reform movements at home while supporting violent Islamic extremism abroad.
Blog: Ahmadinejad on Gadhafi, Syria, alleged plot, nuclear weapons and America's role
Ahmadinejad said the United States should realize the "era of colonialism is over" and review its policies, especially when it comes to pressuring the Middle East.
"We have no problems with the people of the United States. We love them," he said, adding that his problem is with the government.
"The United States has become weaker and weaker. And now, they are hated in the region," Ahmadinejad said. The Middle East "should not be influenced by the pressures of the United States."
The outspoken Ahmadinejad has long been a lightning rod for Iran's critics.
U.S. authorities have accused Iran of being involved in a plot to kill the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, Adel Al-Jubeir, in spring 2012.
The alleged scheme involved a connection to the Quds Force, a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. A 56-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen and an Iran-based member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are accused of conspiring to hire hit men from a Mexican drug cartel to bomb a restaurant, where the ambassador would have been.
In his interview Saturday, Ahmadinejad dismissed the United States' claim of Iranian involvement.
"Do we need really to kill the ambassador of a brotherly country? What is the reason and the interest behind that?" he said. "We never have any intention to hurt Saudi Arabia. Do we really want to do it in the United States? And is that the way, really?"
Ahmadinejad also criticized the United States' military strategies.
In light of U.S. President Barack Obama's announcement Friday that all American troops would be out of Iraq by the end of the year, Ahmadinejad said they should have left sooner.
"The Iraqi government is independent and sovereign. They should decide how to provide training for their military personnel," Ahmadinejad said.
Asked whether Iran's involvement with Iraq will increase because of the American withdrawal, Ahmadinejad said there would be no changes.
Ahmadinejad also addressed accusations that Iran has misled the International Atomic Energy Agency. The agency has said Iran was not providing enough details for it to conclude it is engaged in only peaceful nuclear activities.

BALI BOMBING SUSPECT EXTRADITED TO INDONESIA

An Indonesian militant who allegedly made the explosives used in the 2002 Bali bombings was escorted home under tight security Thursday, more than six months after he was captured in northwest Pakistan. Umar Patek had a $1 million bounty on his head when authorities caught up with him Jan. 25 in Abbottabad – the same town where Osama bin Laden was killed in a U.S. commando attack four months later.

Indonesia’s anti-terrorism chief, Ansyaad Mbai, told The Associated Press it did not appear to be a coincidence that they were in the same place.
“It’s further evidence of the link between the Southeast Asian terror network and al-Qaida,” he added, hours before the 41-year-old boarded an Indonesian plane sent to a Pakistani air force base.
Patek touched down outside Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, on Thursday morning and was taken straight to a police detention center in the West Java town of Kelapa Dua where he will await trial, he said. No date has been announced.
Indonesian officials say Patek has confessed to playing a key role in the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people, many of them foreign tourists, including 88 Australians.
He also admitted to making the bombs used in a string of Christmas Eve attacks on churches in 2000 that claimed 19 lives, they say.
But because tough anti-terror laws passed after the Bali blasts cannot be applied retroactively, he will likely be charged with illegal possession of explosives, Mbai said.
Even though that charge also carries a maximum penalty of death, there are concerns he might get off easy.
Indonesia, the nation with the most Muslims in the world, has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks blamed on Patek’s regional militant group, Jemaah Islamiyah, but none as deadly as the Bali blasts.
A highly praised anti-terrorism campaign in the country of 240 million has seen hundreds of suspects arrested and convicted in recent years, but Patek is one of the biggest to have been captured alive.
His arrest in Abbottabad raised questions over whether he was there to meet bin Laden, something that would challenge theories that the al-Qaida chief was cut off from his followers.
U.S officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the issue, have said it appeared to be a coincidence.
But Mbai countered that Wednesday.
Several other militants – from Asia and Europe to the Middle East – also were arrested in the same region of northwest Pakistan at the time of Patek’s arrest, he said.
They had gathered there in hopes of meeting bin Laden, but it was not clear if they’d succeeded or were planning a new terror strike.
“Patek was very valuable for the U.S.,” Mbai said. “He helped lead authorities to bin Laden.”

Confirmed Gaddafi dead: Barack Obama warns of "difficult days ahead" for Libya

President Barack Obama speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House regarding Gaddafi's death (Pic: AP)

US President Barack Obama said it was a "momentous day" in the history of Libya but warned there will be "difficult days ahead" on the road to full democracy in the country.

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Mr Obama also urged the Libyan people to respect the human rights of those they had detained.
He said the Nato mission in Libya will soon come to an end.
"This marks the end of a long and painful chapter for the people of Libya who now have the opportunity to determine their own destiny in a new and democratic Libya," he said.
"For four decades the Gaddafi regime ruled the Libyan people with an iron fist.
"Basic human rights were denied, innocent civilians were detained, beaten and killed and Libya's wealth was squandered, enormous potential of Libyan people was held back and terror was used as a political weapon.

"Today we can definitively say that the Gaddafi regime has come to an end.
"This is a momentous day in the history of Libya.
"The dark shadow of tyranny has been lifted and with this enormous promise the Libyan people now have a great responsibility to build an inclusive and tolerant and democratic Libya that stands as the ultimate rebuke to Gaddafi's dictatorship.
"We call on our Libya friends to continue to work with the international community to secure dangerous materials and to respect the human rights of all Libyans, including those who have been detained.
"We are under no illusions. Libya will travel a long and winding road to full democracy. There will be difficult days ahead. But the United States, together with the international community, is committed to the Libyan people."

Confirmed Gaddafi dead: Colonel Gaddafi killed in cold blood begging for his life

Colonel Gaddafi (Pic: AFP /Philippe Desmazes)

FUGITIVE Colonel Gaddafi was executed in cold blood in a drainage ditch desperately begging for his life, it emerged this afternoon.

The toppled despot is thought to have fled his car after his speeding convoy fleeing his Sirte stronghold was attacked in a NATO airstrike at 6am UK time.

Two fighter jets attacked the vehicles as they fled the Sirte assault, although neither of the planes that struck the convoy was flown by the RAF.
Another two-plane formation of British Tornado ground attack aircraft were on surveillance and reconnaissance missions over Libya at the time.
As the NATO strike on Gaddafi’s convoy hit the lead vehicles his aides started trying to exit from cars and escape on foot, realising the game was up.
Then as Gaddafi and several aides tried to run into the safety of a drainage ditch they were shot dead by rebel fighters pursuing them on foot.
Libya’s national Transitional Council vice-chairman Abdul Hafiz Ghoga told a news conference in Benghaz: “We announce to the world that Muammar Gaddafi has been killed at the hands of the revolutionaries.
“We will announce the liberation of Libya within hours, maybe sooner.”
It was initially reported that Gaddafi had been wounded and taken into custody by ambulance but witnesses said he was found cowering in a concrete pipe, pleading for his life.

A large concrete pipe where Gaddafi is thought to have been hiding

The area where Gaddafi was captured

The 69 year-old despot was shot in the head and both legs after fleeing a final rebel assault on besieged Sirte, his birthplace and hometown.
Opposition fighters said he died of his wounds shortly after the attack at dawn as the remnants of his loyalist inner-circle were overrun within the city.

The body of Colonel Gaddafi

His bloodied corpse - eyes half open, a bloodied mouth and blood on his head - was displayed on live television and beamed all around the world.
TV footage also showed Gaddafi’s corpse being dragged through a Libyan street.

Graphic video footage of Colonel Gaddafi's body

An image reported to be of Colonel Gaddafi

Colonel Gaddafi's reign has ended

Fighters celebrate the fall of Sirte

A man holds up what is thought to be Gaddafi's golden gun

Fighters brandished his slimline gold 9mm Browning Hi-Power pistol, snatched from him as he lay dying in the dirt.
Libyan prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, told a news conference in Tripoli: “We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Muammar Gaddafi has been killed.”
He then called for Algeria to hand over Gaddafi’s family who fled there weeks ago.
Gaddafi was wanted by the international criminal court on charges of ordering the killing of civilians.
He was at one time believed to be hiding deep in the Sahara desert. His wife, two sons and a daughter fled to neighbouring Algeria shortly after Tripoli fell to rebel forces in August.
Only yesterday, a day before his death, Gaddafi was said by Jibril to have been recruiting fighters from other countries in an effort to destabilise the regime that replaced him.
Gaddafi’s remains were later taken to Misrata as witnessed revealed the assault on Sirte - which has been under siege for two months-was backed by NATO warplanes and naval warships.
One fighter claimed Gaddafi was shot dead by pursuers on foot close to two large drainage pipes by the roadside moments after NATO warplanes attacked his convoy.
TV footage showed troops surrounding the two large drainage pipes under a highway where it is believed to have been hunted down after fleeing a car.
Spray painted above the pipe openings were the words “contemptible Gaddafi” and “God is greatest”.
There was one corpse, apparently a Gaddafi loyalist, lying on the ground next to the openings.
Gaddafi’s body was placed in a mosque in Misrata, close to a commercial centre in the city’s Souq Tawansa neighbourhood.
NATO later confirmed its aircraft attacked two military vehicles near Sirte, saying: “At approximately 0830 local time (0630 GMT) NATO aircraft struck two pro-Gaddafi forces military vehicles which were part of a larger group moving in the vicinity of Sirte.”
Libyan Minister Mahmoud Shammam later confirmed that Gaddafi had been killed after he had personally spoken to fighters who said they saw the body.
Gaddafi’s death - shortly after being seized by rebel attackers - has finally ended the last remnants of his 42 year hold on Libya.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said his death promised a better future for the people he ruled for four decades.
He said: “People in Libya today have an even greater chance after this news of building themselves a strong and democratic future.” 

Qaddafi is Dead!

The death of Libyan strongman Muammar Qadhafi Thursday has sharpened the contrast between President Barack Obama’s recent successes on the foreign policy front and the scattershot criticism offered by his Republican challengers.
Qadhafi was killed seven months after Obama and European leaders launched a military campaign, eventually headed up by NATO, aimed at preventing the Libyan leader from massacring his own people. The NATO effort became closely integrated with rebel forces in Libya and carried out thousands of air strikes aimed at protecting them from Qadhafi’s regime and his loyalists.

Republican presidential hopefuls have criticized Obama from all sides of the Libya issue — arguing that he acted too slowly and deferred to U.S. allies, that he ramped up the effort without adequate explanation, and that he shouldn’t have acted at all.

But the death of Libya’s long-time leader, following the triumph of rebel forces in overthrowing his government, allowed Obama to declare success in a statement in the Rose Garden. “Today, we can definitively say that the Qadhafi regime has come to an end,” he said, adding that “we achieved our objectives.”
Vice President Joe Biden, speaking in New Hampshire, argued that the decision to tackle the problem through NATO, with the U.S. in a supporting role, was a wise one. “NATO got it right. NATO got it right,” he said. “America spent $2 billion total and didn’t lose a single life.”
After enduring years of Republican attacks for a feckless and weak foreign policy, Obama has scored a couple of dramatic victories abroad in recent months. In May, U.S. Navy SEALs killed Al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden in a daring nighttime raid inside Pakistan. And just last month, a U.S. drone strike in Yemen killed Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Islamic militant viewed as a key recruiter of terror operatives for Al Qaeda affiliates.
But on the campaign trail in Iowa Thursday, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, while welcoming the news of Qadhafi’s death, dodged questions about whether Obama deserved any credit for the outcome in Libya.
“About time,” Romney told KSJC-AM. “This was a tyrant who has been killing his own people and of course is responsible for the lives of American citizens lost in the Lockerbie attack. And I think people across the world recognize that the world is a better place without Muammar Qadhafi.”
In March, however, Romney faulted Obama for “following the French into Libya.”And in July, the former Massachusetts governor complained to a New Hampshire audience that Obama’s handling of Libya reflected “mission creep and and mission muddle.”

Graphic video footage of Colonel Gaddafi's body

Gaddafi is said to have died shortly after rebel fighters finally overran his loyalists defending the coastal town of Sirte - finally ending the last remnants of his 42 year hold on Libya.
Libyan National Transitional Council official Abdel Majid Mlegta said Gaddafi was captured and wounded in both legs at dawn today as he tried to flee in a convoy which NATO warplanes attacked.
“He was also hit in his head.” the official said. “There was a lot of firing against his group and he died.”
Gaddafi was probably killed during a NATO airstrike as he tried to flee a rebel onslaught on his final stronghold.

A man holds up what is thought to be Gaddafi's golden gun

A large concrete pipe where Gaddafi is thought to have been hiding

The area where Gaddafi was captured

Fighters celebrate the fall of Sirte

Sirte has been taken by the National Transitional Council

Colonel Gaddafi pictured in March

Celebrations of taking Sirte

Libyan Minister Mahmoud Shammam later confirmed that Gaddafi had been killed after he had personally spoken to fighters who said they saw the body.
Gaddafi’s death - shortly after being seized by rebel attackers - has finally ended the last remnants of his 42 year hold on Libya.
But one of the deposed leader’s sons Mo’tassim Gaddafi, was said to have been captured alive in Sirte by forces of the National Transitional Council.
Al Arabiya TV later promised to broadcast images of Mo’tassim after his capture.
Many of Gaddafi’s inner-circle have died in recent months but today the final remaining power figures were either taken alive or killed in fighting.
Libyan National Transitional Council official Abdel Majid Mlegta said Gaddafi was captured and wounded in both legs at dawn as he tried to flee in a convoy which NATO warplanes attacked.

An anti-Gaddafi fighter prepares ammunition in the centre of Sirte

An image of Gaddafi next to a copy of the Economist among belongings in a Sirte house

Anti-Gaddafi fighters celebrate

Anti-Gaddafi fighters hug after the capture of Sirte

Fighters are jubilant

Anti-Gaddafi forces have been celebrating

An anti-Gaddafi fighter takes a break during clashes with pro-Gaddafi forces in Sirte

Anti-Gaddafi fighters celebrate the fall of Sirte

A fighter shoots into the air in celebration

A group of fighters celebrate

Anti-Gaddafi fighters celebrate in the back of a pick-up