NEWS WAKID: 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 Colonel Gaddafi golden gun (Pic: Getty Images)

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

A large concrete pipe where Colonel Gaddafi was allegedly captured (Pic: Getty Images)

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.