TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril says Moammar Gadhafi has been killed.
“We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Moammar Gadhafi has been killed,” Jibril told a news conference in the capital Tripoli.
Source: Associated Press
Update 10/20/2011, 10:30AM: US official: Libyan gov’t confirms Gadhafi’s death
WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. official says Libya’s new government has told the United States that Moammar Gadhafi is dead.
The official said Libya’s Transitional National Council informed U.S. officials in Libya of the development Thursday.
The official said TNC chief Mahmoud Jibril was expected to officially announce Gadhafi’s death soon.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the U.S. cannot independently confirm Gadhafi’s death.
Source: Bradley Klapper – AP
Update 10/20/2011, 9:00AM: Libya officials: Gadhafi captured, possibly killed
SIRTE, Libya (AP) — Officials in Libya’s transitional government say Moammar Gadhafi has been captured and possibly killed in the fall of his hometown but there is no confirmation from the country’s most senior leaders.
NATO says it hit a convoy of Gadhafi’s loyalists fleeing Sirte on Thursday morning but it could not confirm whether the ousted Libyan leader was in the convoy or possibly killed or captured.
Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam says he has confirmed that Gadhafi was dead from fighters that said they saw the body. He says he expects the prime minister to confirm the death soon, noting that past reports emerged “before making 100 percent confirmation.”
Past reports of Gadhafi deaths or captures have later proven incorrect.
Source: Christopher Gillette & Rami Al-Shaheibi – AP
Update 10/20/2011, 8:45AM: Forces take Gadhafi hometown; capture unconfirmed
SIRTE, Libya (AP) — NATO confirms it hit a convoy of Moammar Gadhafi’s loyalists fleeing Sirte as the city fell Thursday, but there are conflicting reports whether the ousted Libyan leader was in the convoy or possibly killed or captured.
Col. Roland Lavoie, spokesman for NATO’s operational headquarters in Naples, Italy, says 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.”
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.
Source: Christopher Gillette & Rami Al-Shaheibi – AP
Update 10/20/2011, 8:30AM: White House monitoring reports of Gadhafi capture
WASHINGTON (AP) — White House officials are monitoring reports that Moammar Gadhafi has been captured in Libya, but are unable to confirm the status of the former Libyan leader.
The chief spokesman for the revolutionary National Transitional Council Jalal el-Gallal and the council military spokesman Abdul-Rahman Busin tell the Associated Press that reports that Gadhafi has been captured in his hometown of Sirte are unconfirmed.
Libyan fighters captured Sirte Thursday, two months after the fall of Tripoli.
Reports of Gadhafi’s capture follow Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s visit to Libya Tuesday. She said in Tripoli that she hoped Gadhafi would be captured or killed.
Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Thursday the State Department has been unable to confirm the reports about Gadhafi.
Source: Associated Press
Update 10/20/2011, 8:20 AM: Libya: No confirm Gadhafi captured in Sirte fall
SIRTE, Libya (AP) — Libyan officials and NATO say they cannot confirm reports from revolutionary fighters that ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was captured or killed in the fall of his hometown Thursday.
The Misrata Military Council, one of multiple command groups for revolutionary forces, says its fighters captured Gadhafi in Sirte. Another commander, Abdel-Basit Haroun, says Gadhafi was killed when an airstrike hit a convoy trying to flee.
The spokesman for Libya’s transitional government, Jalal al-Gallal, and its military spokesman Abdul-Rahman Busin say the reports have not been confirmed. A NATO official also said the alliance could not independently confirm.
Repeated past reports of Gadhafi family deaths or captures have later proved incorrect.
Source: Christopher Gillette – AP
Update 10/20/2011, 8:00AM: Multiple news outlets are reporting Gadhafi has been killed.
Original AP Story Below:
SIRTE, Libya (AP) — The hometown of Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi has fallen to revolutionaries who overran the last positions held by his loyalists in Sirte (sert).
It was the last major resistance by former regime supporters still holding out two months after the fall of the capital, Tripoli. Following the battle, revolutionaries began searching homes and buildings looking for any Gadhafi fighters who may be hiding there. At least 16 were captured, along with multiple cases of ammunition and trucks loaded with weapons.
Celebratory gunfire echoed throughout the city.
Gadhafi himself remains in hiding.
Source: Associated Press
