Libyan prime minister confirms Gaddafi killed as Sirte is overrun

 democratic Libya.” He told the Libyan people: “You have won your revolution.”

The dramatic final battle capped a drawn-out fight in which NATO played a key role, bombarding Gaddafi’s forces under an unprecedented U.N. mandate to protect civilians who had risen up against their government. A NATO airstrike appeared to cripple Gaddafi’s convoy early Thursday as it sped out of Sirte, although revolutionary fighters said they were the ones who then moved in and shot the former leader.

Gaddafi, who ruled Libya for 42 years until Tripoli fell in August, was the first leader to die in the Arab Spring uprisings.

The capture of Sirte — and the death of Gaddafi — clear the way for the appointment of a new interim government that is to steer the country toward new elections, expected in eight or nine months.

The new Libyan government will face some of the most daunting challenges of any of the Arab Spring countries. The revolutionaries have pledged to build a democracy in a country that has never had one. Gaddafi had banned opposition parties and a free press and largely ruled single-handedly, even though he shunned official titles.

The confirmation of Gaddafi’s death came after hours of conflicting reports following the final assault on Sirte, Gaddafi’s last refuge about 280 miles east of Tripoli.

Abdulrahman Busin, the military liaison to Libya’s transitional government, said Gaddafi and a number of his allies were trying to leave Sirte when revolutionaries fired on them.

“There was an exchange of fire in which he was injured,” said Busin. The revolutionary forces then captured the former leader, he said.

He said Gaddafi was found with a 9mm pistol and a semiautomatic rifle.

Busin said Gaddafi may have been in a part of the convoy hit by a NATO airstrike. But he added: “Our forces went in and did the rest. He wasn’t killed by NATO.”

It was not immediately clear, however, whether Gaddafi was initially wounded in the airstrike.

Video footage broadcast by CNN showed Gaddafi bloodied but upright and apparently alive when he was first caught by revolutionaries. Later images showed his body inert and stripped of his shirt as he lay on the ground.

Busin predicted that the interim leadership would declare the “full liberation” of Libya within 48 hours, which would trigger the naming of a new temporary government and the preparation of elections.