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Libyan Leader Moammar Gadhafi Killed; Tri-State Reacting To News
October 20, 2011 10:47 AM
Libyans wave their new national flag as they celebrate in the streets of Tripoli following news of Moammar Gadhafi’s capture on October 20, 2011. (Photo credit: MAHMUD TURKIA/AFP/Getty Images)
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Heard On 1010 WINS, WCBS, WFAN, Local, News,NJ News, NY News, Politics,Seen On CBS 2HD, Watch + ListenNEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – Officials sayMoammar Gadhafi, who ruled Libya for more than four decades, was captured and killed Thursday after his hometown of Sirte fell to revolutionary forces.
Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril informed the U.S. that Gadhafi was killed after numerous reports of his capture and death spread across the world.
“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.
GRAPHIC PHOTOS: Capture And Death Of Moammar Gadhafi
The news also made its way to the Tri-State area, where family members of the Pan Am flight 103 bombing victims are speaking out.
Gadhafi was alleged to be behind the 1988 bombing that killed 259 people as the flight flew over Lockerbie, Scotland.
Bert Ammerman, whose brother Thomas Joseph Ammerman was among those killed, told WCBS 880′s Paul Murnane that today may be the most satisfying day he’s had in 24 years.
“I’ve said over and over again over the 24 years that I’ve lived a Tom Clancy novel in what has taken place, where I’ve been, what we’ve been involved in,” he said. “Never once did our government really step forward and say ‘this is what we’re going to do for you.’ It was always pressure, embarrassment, pressure, pressure.”
Susan Cohen, the mother of 20-year-old Theodora Cohen, spoke with CBSNewYork.com about Gadhafi’s capture Thursday morning.
“He was an absolute tyrant and monster and so today I feel, if the news is true, it’s glorious and I’m going to drink a bottle of champagne and celebrate his death.”she said.
Gadhafi has had a controversial history with our area, especially during his visits to the United Nations.
In Sept. 2009, Gadhafi reportedly rented out Donald Trump’s estatein Bedford to set up a tent city while in the New York City area to attend the U.N. General Assembly.
The tents were later dismantled after the town of Bedford claimed the tents violated code.
The Trump Organization had said that Trump hadn’t rented the property to the Libyan leader but said part of the estate “was leased on a short-term basis to Middle Eastern partners, who may or may not have a relationship to Mr. Gadhafi.”
The news of his death reached Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Afghanistan Thursday.
During her visit to Tripoli on Tuesday, she said she hoped Gadhafi would be captured or killed.
She spoke with CBS NewsThursday morning from Afghanistan, saying if the capture was true, it would be a significant development in Libya.
In Libya, Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam said he was told that Gadhafi was dead from fighters who said they saw the body. He said he expects the prime minister to confirm the death soon, noting that past reports emerged before they could confirm them 100 percent.
“Our people in Sirte saw the body. Mustafa Abdul-Jalil will confirm it soon,” Shammam told The Associated Press. “Revolutionaries say Gadhafi was in a convoy and that they attacked the convoy.”
Other military officials in the government also said Gadhafi was dead and several revolutionary groups fighting in Sirte also said he was either killed or captured.
“Our people in Sirte saw the body. Mustafa Abdul-Jalil will confirm it soon,” Shammam told The Associated Press. “Revolutionaries say Gadhafi was in a convoy and that they attacked the convoy.”
Other military officials in the government also said Gadhafi was dead and several revolutionary groups fighting in Sirte also said he was either killed or captured.
The transitional government called a news conference in Tripoli, where Abdul-Jalil could confirm the death.
Celebratory gunfire and cries of “Allahu Akbar” or “God is Great” rang out across Tripoli as the reports spread. Cars honked their horns and people hugged each other.
In Sirte, the ecstatic former rebels celebrated the city’s fall after weeks of bloody siege by firing endless rounds into the sky, pumping their guns, knives and even a meat cleaver in the air and singing the national anthem.
Despite the fall of Tripoli on Aug. 21, Gadhafi loyalists mounted fierce resistance in several areas, including Sirte, preventing Libya’s new leaders from declaring full victory in the eight-month civil war.
Earlier this week, revolutionary fighters gained control of one stronghold, Bani Walid, and by Tuesday said they had squeezed Gadhafi’s forces in Sirte into a residential area of about 700 square yards but were still coming under heavy fire from surrounding buildings.
Reporters at the scene watched as the final assault began around 8 a.m. and ended about 90 minutes later. Just before the battle, about five carloads of Gadhafi loyalists tried to flee the enclave down the coastal highway that leads out of the city. But they were met by gunfire from the revolutionaries, who killed at least 20 of them.
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.”
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.
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.”
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.
After the battle, revolutionaries began searching homes and buildings looking for any hiding Gadhafi fighters. At least 16 were captured, along with cases of ammunition and trucks loaded with weapons. Reporters saw revolutionaries beating captured Gadhafi men in the back of trucks and officers intervening to stop them.
In an illustration of how difficult and slow the fighting for Sirte was, it took the anti-Gadhafi fighters two days to capture a single residential building.
In the central quarter where Thursday’s final battle took place, the fighters looking like the same ragtag force that started the uprising eight months ago jumped up and down with joy and flashed V-for-victory signs. Some burned the green Gadhafi flag, then stepped on it with their boots.
“Our forces control the last neighborhood in Sirte,” Hassan Draoua, a member of Libya’s interim National Transitional Council, told The Associated Press in Tripoli. “The city has been liberated.”
The Misrata Military Council, one of the command groups, said its fighters captured Gadhafi. Another commander, Abdel-Basit Haroun, says Gadhafi was killed when the airstrike hit the fleeing convoy.
The Misrata Military Council, one of the command groups, said its fighters captured Gadhafi. Another commander, Abdel-Basit Haroun, says Gadhafi was killed when the airstrike hit the fleeing convoy.
It was in Misrata back in April where two Brooklyn photojournalists will killed in Libya while covering the fighting between Gadhafi’s forces and rebels.
In a sign of the conflicting versions, military spokesman Col. Ahmed Bani in Tripoli told Al-Jazeera TV, “I can assure everyone in Libya that Gadhafi has been killed for sure and I’m definitely sure and I reassure everyone that this story has ended and this book has closed.”
In a sign of the conflicting versions, military spokesman Col. Ahmed Bani in Tripoli told Al-Jazeera TV, “I can assure everyone in Libya that Gadhafi has been killed for sure and I’m definitely sure and I reassure everyone that this story has ended and this book has closed.”
But rather than a strike on the convoy, he said a wounded Gadhafi “tried to resist (revolutionary forces) so they took him down.”
The spokesman for Libya’s transitional government, Jalal al-Gallal, and another military spokesman Abdul-Rahman Busin said the reports have not been confirmed.
The spokesman for Libya’s transitional government, Jalal al-Gallal, and another military spokesman Abdul-Rahman Busin said the reports have not been confirmed.
The caution in making a definitive announcement came because past reports of Gadhafi family deaths or captures have later proven incorrect, even after they were announced by officials, because of the confusion among the revolutionary forces’ ranks and the multiple bodies involved in commanding their fighters.
Gadhafi loyalists who have escaped could still continue the fight and attempt to organize an insurgency using the vast amount of weapons Gadhafi was believed to have stored in hideouts in the remote southern desert.
Unlike Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Gadhafi had no well-organized political party that could form the basis of an insurgent leadership. However, regional and ethnic differences have already appeared among the ranks of the revolutionaries, possibly laying the foundation for civil strife.
(TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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