Gaddafi ‘the rat’ was found cowering by drainage ditch

MUAMMAR al-Gaddafi called the rebels “rats” when they rose up against his 42-year tyranny, but in the end he was the one found cowering by a drainage pipe amid the rubbish and filth.

Blue graffiti scrawled above the two-metre wide holes in the grey concrete read, “This is the place of Gaddafi the rat”, “contemptible Gaddafi” and “God is greatest”.

“He called us rats, but look where we found him,” said Ahmed Al Sahati, a 27-year-old government fighter.

The battle for Sirte had been billed as the final act in the popular rebellion of Libya – it was also to be the end of Gaddafi.

Throughout the weeks-long battle it was unclear why the boxed in loyalists had defended the former fishing town with such ferocity and determination, seemingly without any hope of success.

But as yesterday unfolded the reason became clear – they had been hiding the deposed dictator.

The siege of Sirte had lasted for two months and eventually something had to give.

At dawn yesterday, shortly before prayers, a convoy of about 80 vehicles cut loose, dashing out of the north-west corner of the town.

It was Gaddafi’s final roll of the dice.

He was accompanied by a few dozen loyal bodyguards and the one-time head of his now non-existent army, Abu Bakr Younis Jabr, as they made a break for the west.

The vehicles were spotted by French Nato warplanes overhead and the convoy was hit by a devastating airstrike at about 8:30am local time, two hours ahead of the UK.

Several pick-up trucks were later found, smashed and smouldering, mounted with heavy machine guns about two miles west of Sirte.

There was no bomb crater, which suggested the strike may have been carried out by a helicopter gunship, or had been strafed, with a machine gun or cannon, from a fighter jet.

Inside the trucks, the charred skeletal remains of drivers and passengers were still in their seats having been killed instantly by the strike.

Other bodies lay mutilated on the ground next to the vehicles – about 50 corpses in all.

As government troops approached the scene, Gaddafi and a handful of men, including Jabr, fled. They reportedly ran through a group of trees towards the main road and hid in the two drainage pipes where they were found.

Gaddafi had managed to survive the Nato strike, but he would not survive his own people.

He was finally cornered brandishing a gold-plated pistol.

Salem Bakeer, who was among the government troops, said: “At first we fired at them with anti-aircraft guns, but it was no use.

“Then we went in on foot. One of Gaddafi’s men came out waving his rifle in the air and shouting surrender, but as soon as he saw my face he started shooting at me.

Then I think Gaddafi must have told them to stop.”

Mr Bakeer said the man started pleading with them, saying, “My master is here, my master is here. Muammar Gaddafi is here and he is wounded.”

It is not clear when Gaddafi suffered his fatal injuries.

He was reportedly shot in his legs, chest and head with a nine-millimetre weapon.

According to an unconfirmed Tweet by Mohammed Ali Abdallah, of the National Front for the Salvation of Libya, the man who shot him was 18-year-old Ahmed Shaibani. “A new hero is born,” he wrote.

However, Omran Jouma Shawan, another of the government fighters at the scene, said Gaddafi was shot at the last minute by one of his own men.

“One of Muammar Gaddafi’s guards shot him in the chest,” he said.

“We went in and brought Gaddafi out,” Mr Bakeer said.

“He was saying, ‘What’s wrong? What’s wrong? What’s going on?’

“Then we took him and put him in the car.”

Both Gaddafi and Jabr were captured alive but later died.

Fathi Bashaga, a spokesman for the anti-Gaddafi fighters, said they found the former leader wounded in the neck in one vehicle and took him to an ambulance, but he bled to death half an hour later.

Shaky video phone footage showed dozens of people surrounding a bloody and disorientated Gaddafi and carrying him away from the drain.

They fired their weapons in the air and shouted Allahu Akbar, God is greatest, in celebration – gunshots which would echo around the whole of Libya as the nation learned the former dictator was finally dead.

The bodies of seven men, apparently his bodyguards, lay at different ends of the pipes.

Gaddafi was then taken back to his home city of Sirte, which he had attempted to flee just hours earlier.

More shaky video footage showed the goateed, balding former leader in a blood-soaked shirt and a bloodied face, being pushed along by fighters.

He was dazed and wounded, but still clearly alive and gesturing with his hands as he was dragged from a pick-up truck by a crowd who hit him and pulled at his hair.

He then appeared to fall to the ground and was enveloped by the crowd.

Shortly before 5pm in Libya, Gaddafi’s bloodied body was loaded on top of a vehicle and taken to the rebel stronghold of Misrata, where he was lain in a mosque.

A crowd surrounded the vehicle and chanted: “The blood of the martyrs will not go in vain.”

In Misrata, some people went to see with their own eyes if he was really dead.

Mohammed, who visited the mosque, said: “It’s definitely him, it’s his hair, his face.

“I would know it anywhere – all Libya would.”