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Photo (graphic): Image captured off cellphone camera claims to show arrest of Gadhafi in Sirte - AFP via@Guardian bit.ly/oRUxhj
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Muammar Gaddafi. Photograph: Max Rossi/Reuters
This blog is ending, but our live coverage will continue here. Here's a summary of events today:
• Muammar Gaddafi, who ruled Libya from 1969 until August this year, has been killed by forces loyal to the country's new government. The Libyan government has confirmed his death. Gaddafi 69, was reportedly found hiding in a drain outside Sirte, where he and and others had taken shelter after their convoy was hit by a Nato airstrike as it attempted to escape. A spokesman for the National Tranisitional Council – Libya's ruling body – said Gaddafi was alive when captured but died in an ambulance on the way to hospital.
• Confusion surrounds the fate of other members of Gaddafi's family and inner circle. An NTC representative said up to 17 senior members of the Gaddafi regime have been apprehended or killed. There have been reports that his sons Mutassim Gaddafi and Saif al-Islam have been killed but other reports say Mutassim has been captured alive and that al-Islam has fled.
• Gaddafi's spokesman Moussa Ibrahim and the late dictator's cousin and adviser Ahmed Ibrahim have been captured, according to NTC official Abdel Majid Mlegta. Abu Bakr Yunis, the former Libyan defence minister, was killed in the attack on the former dictator's compound, according to the NTC. Libya TV, a pro-NTC channel, said that Abd Allah al-Sanusi, a senior Libyan intelligence chief, and Mansour Daw, a Gaddafi aide, were also captured.
• Graphic video and pictures of the dead dictator have been released. His body was apparently dragged through the streets of Sirte. An NTC spokesman said Gaddafi was shot in the head and in both legs. The footage appears to show Gaddafi's body being transported through Sirte. He has blood around his chest and face.
Nato commanders are recommending the Libya air campaign should now be brought to an end, my colleague Julian Borger tells me. The formal decision will be taken tomorrow by the North Atlantic Council, representing Nato member states. Julian just received this comment from a Nato official.
A military assessment of the current situation in Libya and a recommendation for the wrapping up of the Nato operation is on its way to Nato HQ. This will most likely prompt a special meeting of the North Atlantic Council tomorrow to consider the recommendation and decide on the future of the current mission.
The heir to the Libyan throne has spoken out to say that the death of Muammar Gaddafi was a victory for peace, freedom and reform.
When Gaddafi took power in 1969 he overthrew Libya's King Idris and the old flag of the Kingdom of Libya has become a symbol of the NTC rebellion.
Today Mohammed El Senussi, considered by Libyan royalists to be the heir to the old Libyan throne, issued a statement saying:
The flag of freedom is now flying in Sirte and across Libya on this historic day. People throughout Libya took up arms just eight months ago and in that short time they have been united in their resolve to rid the country of evil …The new Libya must be organised under the rule of law and there is no greater time than right now to demonstrate that commitment by ensuring there are no acts of vengeance against Gaddafi's supporters and that justice is dealt with by the courts.Today begins a new chapter in our history. I look forward now with confidence that the people of Libya will build a future we can all be proud of. Now is the time to put freedom and the sanctity of life at the heart of our society and to put the era of terror and oppression behind us.
Senussi, who is based in London, was asked on a previous occasion about the prospect of re-establishing the monarchy in Libya. He reportedly said that he "is a servant to Libyan people, and they decide what they want".
The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, has just given his reaction:
This day marks a historic transition for Libya. In the coming days we will witness scenes of celebration as well as grief for those who have lost so much. But I recognise that this is only the end of the beginning. The road ahead for Libya will be difficult and full of challenges. Libyans can only realise the promise of the future ...through reconciliation ...This is a time for healing ... not for revenge ...Inclusion and pluralism must be the watchwords. All Libyans must be able to recognise themselves in the nation's government and leadership ...A new UN mission to Libya is on the ground and ready to assist Libya.
Here are the full quotes from British prime minister David Cameron, who along with French president Nicolas Sarkozy was one of the early champions of the uprising against Gaddafi and the need for Nato intervention:
I think today is a day to remember all of Colonel Gaddafi's victims, from those who died in connection with the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, to Yvonne Fletcher in a London street, and obviously all the victims of IRA terrorism who died through their use of Libyan semtex.We should also remember the many, many Libyans who died at the hands of this brutal dictator and his regime.People in Libya today have an even greater chance after this news of building themselves a strong and democratic future. I am proud of the rolethat Britain has played in helping them to bring that about and I pay tribute to the bravery of the Libyans who helped to liberate their country. We will help them, we will work with them and that is what I want to say today. Thank you.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT.
Here is the mobile phone footage in full that purports to show Muammar Gaddafi's body in the streets of Sirte.
More news about Gaddafi's sons: Mutassim is reported to be injured but captured. Saif al-Islam is said to be under attack after fleeing Sirte.
FLASH: Reuters witness sees video of captured Gaddafi son Mo'Tassim, lying on bed, covered in blood, but alive
BREAKING: #Seif al Islam under heavy attack, reached by freedom fighters in #Alhera after he fled #Sirte attack that killed his father
Western aircraft steadily eroded the Gaddafi military's ability to exploit its vastly superior, and professionally delivered, firepower, targeting concentrations of artillery and armour as they lay siege to rebel-held cities. Chaotic at first, without training or any but the most rudimentary equipment, and fired only by enthusiasm and reckless courage, the disconnected groups of volunteer fighters gradually acquired sufficient military skills and improved, makeshift weaponry first to hold their own, and then to achieve minor gains here and there. After six months of stalemate, they surprised the world, and perhaps themselves, with their lightning descent on the capital and their conquest of the Bab al-Aziziya barracks – that vast, forbidding high-walled fortress, home, seat of power, and above all, crass, iconic, absurdist symbol of Gaddafi and all his works. It was only a matter of time before National Transitional Council forces took control of the rest of the country, and even Sirte finally provided no refuge.
Here's a summary of events so far on a momentous day.
• Muammar Gaddafi, who ruled Libya from 1969 until August this year, has been killed by forces loyal to the country's new governm 
ent.
ent.• Gaddafi, 69, was reportedly found hiding in a drain outside Sirte, where he and and others had taken shelter after their convoy was hit by a Nato airstrike as it attempted to escape.
• Graphic video and pictures of the dead dictator have been released. His body was apparently dragged through the streets of Sirte. An NTC spokesman said Gaddafi was shot in the head and in both legs.
• Gaddafi was alive when captured and died in an ambulance on the way to Misrata, according to the NTC's UK representative.
• Abu Bakr Yunis, the former Libyan defence minister, was killed in the attack on the former dictator's compound, according to the NTC.
• Confusion surrounds the fate of other members of Gaddafi's family and inner circle. An NTC representative said up to 17 senior members of the Gaddafi regime have been apprehended or killed. There have been reports that his sons Mutassim Gaddafi and Saif al-Islam have been killed but other reports say Mutassim has been captured alive and that al-Islam has fled.
to 17 senior members of the Gaddafi regime have been apprehended or killed. There have been reports that his sons Mutassim Gaddafi and Saif al-Islam have been killed but other reports say Mutassim has been captured alive and that al-Islam has fled.• Gaddafi's spokesman Moussa Ibrahim and the late dictator's cousin and adviser Ahmed Ibrahim have been captured, according to NTC official Abdel Majid Mlegta. Libya TV, a pro-NTC channel, said that Abd Allah al-Sanusi, a senior Libyan intelligence chief, and Mansour Daw, a Gaddafi aide, were also captured.
My colleague Stuart Millar writes that CNN just ran a video of Hillary Clinton, the American secretary of state, being given the news about Gaddafi in Pakistan. An aide handed her a BlackBerry, she squinted at it, her eyes widened and then she said: "Wow!"
John McCain, the former US presidential candidate and foreign policy specialist in the Senate, has, urged the US to become more involved in helping Libya.
The death of Muammar Gaddafi marks an end to the first phase of the Libyan revolution. While some final fighting continues, the Libyan people have liberated their country. Now the Libyan people can focus all of their immense talents on strengthening their national unity, rebuilding their country and economy, proceeding with their democratic transition, and safeguarding the dignity and human rights of all Libyans. The United States, along with our European alliesand Arab partners, must now deepen our support for the Libyan people, as they work to make the next phase of their democratic revolution as successful as the fight to free their country.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT. Mobile phone footageclaiming to show the dead body of Gaddafi's defence minister, Abu Bakr Yunis, has been broadcast by al-Jazeera Arabic.
NTC officials report that Yunis was killed during an attack on a convoy of Gaddafi loyalists.
David Cameron just made a statement at Downing Street, saying the Libyan government had confirmed that Gaddafi was dead.
He said we should remember the victims of Lockerbie, PC Yvonne Fletcher, and IRA victims killed with semtex provided by Gaddafi's Libya, as well as all the Libyans killed over the last several months.
Today is a day to remember the victims.
He said he was prou d of the role Britian had played in allowing Libya to move towards a democratic future.
d of the role Britian had played in allowing Libya to move towards a democratic future. In London Libyan charge d'affaires Mahmud Nacua is giving a press conference.
He confirmed that Gaddafi is dead. He said:
Today the Libyan NTC fighters achieved a glorious and momentous victory against the tyranny of Muammar Gaddafi, his sons and cronies ... Today we are told that Gaddafi is dead.The Libyan freedom fighters have finally succeeded in drawing the curtain on Gaddafi's crimes.Today Libya's future begins. Gaddafi's black era has come to an end for ever.The Libyan people are looking forward to a very promising future where they can finally start building the free democratic state for which they have fought for about eight months now.Our people have paid a high price. About 40,000 martyrs have given their lives for the freedom of their country.We very much appreciate the help of the international community to get rid of Gaddafi and his crimes.
Asked whether it would have been better to have put Gaddafi on trial, he said:
It is now Gaddafi's fate; he has faced his fate and it is not [an] important matter if he is alive or dead. The final thing, the good thing: we get rid of Gaddafi and his crimes. The next step: we look forward to building a new Libya as a state of law.
He said Mustafa Abndul Jalil would give a statement tonight announcing the liberation of the whole country.
When the coutnry is "Stable" all the files relating to Lockerbie and Gaddafi's other crimes will be opened up to the world, he said.
Channel 4 News's foreign affairs correspondent Jonathan Rugman tweets that Gaddafi's most high-profile son has allegedly been killed:
Whitehall source: Seif al-Islam Gaddafi (once his father's heir apparent) believed killed in NATO airstrike near Bani Walid a few days ago.
But, perhaps not surprisingly given the pace at which events have moved today, his colleague, Linsey Hilsum, international editor at Channel 4 News, contradicts him:
Jibril says fighters engaged with armed convoy believed to include #Seif al #Gadaffi
Michael Collins Dunn, from the Washington-based Middle East Institute,describes Gaddafi's death as the Arab Spring's "Ceausescu moment".
The peaceful overthrow of long-standing Presidents inEgypt and Tunisia made the so-called "Arab spring" look like a genuinely benign, if not quite bloodless, transformation. But just as the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe in the early 1990s was largely bloodless, there was the exception of Rumania, where Nicolae Ceausescu met with a bloody end. The long, hard civil war in Libya made it a likely candidate for a Ceausescu-type ending.
Muammar Gaddafi is dead, the NTC has just announced.
NTC official Abdel Ghoga has been speaking at a news conference. He says he wants to announce the end of tyranny and dictatorship in Libya. It will never happen again.
The revolutionaries have got the head of the tyrant. He has met the fate of all tyrants, Ghoga says.
"We will announce to the world that Muammar Gaddafi has been killed at the hands of the revolutionaries."
Gaddafi's dictatorship has been ended, he says.
Sky is quoting the Libyan prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, as saying:
We've been waiting for this moment a long time. Muammar Gaddafi has been killed.
A number of Libyans overseas have been using social media relentlessly during the war in Libya for updates/to update others. They too have been reacting to the reported death of Gaddafi. One of them, Assia Bashir Amry, in Kentucky, USA, who has been tweeting under the name @Libyan4life, wrote:
My mother is in tears. She cant stop crying. She left #Libya 38 years ago as a young bride with my father in resistance to #Gaddafi
@ShababLibya, the Tw 
itter account for the Libyan youth movement, is urging people in London to congregate on the Edgware Road, the most famous haunt for Arabs in the capital, at 6pm BST to celebrate the death of Gaddafi.
itter account for the Libyan youth movement, is urging people in London to congregate on the Edgware Road, the most famous haunt for Arabs in the capital, at 6pm BST to celebrate the death of Gaddafi. WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES. Mobile phone footage purporting to show Gaddafi's dead body in Sirte has been uploaded to YouTube by al-Jazeera.
The Associated Press is saying that the Libyan prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, has confirmed Gaddafi is dead.
My colleague Stephen Khan sends this reaction from Alex Salmond (left), the first minister of Scotland, the site of the Lockerbie bombing in 1988.
Reports are still emerging from Libya, and the circumstances about Gaddafi are unconfirmed. But regardless of whether the former dictator Gaddafi is alive or not, the position is clear as far as the Scottish justice system is concerned. The Crown Office have always said that the Lockerbie atrocity remains an open case. Therefore, our police and prosecution authorities stand by ready to investigate and follow any new lines of inquiry that may be emerging in Libya at the present moment.
The Associated Press news agency is reporting that Libyan leaders have told the US Gaddafi is dead, according to US officials.
Human Rights Watch said Gaddafi's alleged war crimes should still be investigated, even if he has been killed today.
Richard Dickler, director of the the organisation's international justice programme, said:
Reports of Muammar Gaddafi's death, if accurate, deprive the Libyan people of the chance to see him held to account in a fair trial at the ICC [international criminal court] for the egregious crimes he allegedly committed while suppressing peaceful demonstrations in February 2011.
However, his demise does not extinguish the need to bring to trial those most responsible for serious crimes against humanity and war crimes in Libya to fair trial in The Hague. There are outstanding arrest warrants for two other suspects.In addition, we look to the ICC prosecutor to investigate allegations of other crimes against humanity and war crimes in Libya. The prosecutor's mandate enables him to look at possible crimes committed by all sides in the armed conflict.
"For his own long-suffering people, Gaddafi will be remembered as a tyrant, a dictator plain and simple," says our Middle East editor Ian Black.
Speaking on his way from Tunisia to Libya, Ian said:
Gaddafi will be remembered as a slightly strange, flamboyant figure on the world stage. In the west we got into the habit of thinking that because he wore silly uniforms and was a bit of buffoon, then he was in some ways a fun figure. Libyans see him rather differently. He was to all intents and purposes a dictator .. Most people will be glad and relieved that his is gone.
People in Tripoli from the National Transitional Council are jubilant at the news, and are confirming that Gaddafi is indeed dead. He was killed apparently in the last stages of the fight in Sirte. There is a mood of tremendous excitement. It is obviously a hugely important day for the Libyan revolution and will echo loudly across the Arab world. The death of Muammar Gaddafi, who ruled Libya for nearly 42 years, is a very big deal indeed.Gaddafi and his son Saif al-Islam and his intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi, were of course wanted by the international criminal court in the Hague on charges for crimes against humanity. The fact that he's been killed, assuming it's true, means there will be no such trial.In a sense [the new government] will find it easier to deal with a Gaddafi who has been killed in combat, rather than a Gaddafi who would have been defiant in any court.The preferred outcome is the one that seems to have come about.
His sons are less important, Ian says. But there will be attention now on the fate and whereabouts of Saif al-Islam, his most high-profile son.
There was never any inThe conventional wisdom was that he was on the run, hiding somewhere in the Sahara desert. There was some apparent evidence of that.Perhaps Gaddafi's presence helps explain the ferocity of the fighting we have seen in Sirte.
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, while not confirming Gaddafi's death, has said: "If they [the NTC] know that he is no longer a threat to them I think that will actually ease the transition process to a new government."
Sky's c
Photograph: Philippe Desmazes/AFP/Getty Imagesorrespondent has translated the graffiti on the drain where Gaddafi was reportedly found (see 2.48pm). It says:
Photograph: Philippe Desmazes/AFP/Getty Imagesorrespondent has translated the graffiti on the drain where Gaddafi was reportedly found (see 2.48pm). It says:
This is the place where the rat Gaddafi was hiding.
And:
Contemptible Gaddafi.
Gaddafi of course called the rebels rats throughout their uprising against him.
Sky News is showing the video again that purportedly shows the body of Muammar Gaddafi being manhandled in the streets of Sirte.
Sky News is showing video of Gaddafi's body being dragged through the streets of Sirte. The image we published earlier seems to be from this video. It was very graphic footage and Sky seemed to change its mind half way through and cut to adverts.
Al-Jazeera's James Bays says someone in Tripoli has already made an image of the dead Muammar Gaddafi into a poster.
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGE Al-Jazeera is showing an image that appears to show Gaddafi's body.
Apologies - it is a graphic image.
Here's that photo of the drain where Gaddafi was reportedly found (see 2.38pm).
Al-Jazeera is now showing a close-up of Gaddafi's face. He does not seem to be alive.
We cannot confirm his death.
Reuters says the vice-chairman of the NTC, Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, is now confirming Gaddafi has b 
een killed.
een killed. AFP has also posted a picture purportedly of a man holding aloft Gaddafi's golden gun.
The Libyan ambassador to London is being interviewed on Sky News. He says he is sure Gaddafi is dead.
The BBC is reporting that Mutassim Gaddafi, Muammar's son, was found dead in Sirte on Thursday, citing the NTC.
On
Photograph: Philippe Desmazes/AFP/Getty Imagesh.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8716240/Libya-live.html">the Daily Telegraph's live blog, reporter Ben Farmer says he has has been to the site in Sirte where Gaddafi was reportedly captured. He says Gaddafi was "cornered in a drain underneath a road in open countryside to the west of the city of Sirte". Gaddafi's vehicles tried to get out of the town, were hit by a Nato airstrike, and Gaddafi and several bodyguards took refuge in a drain, where they were found by NTC fighters. The Telegraph blog has an AFP "http://twitpic.com/73344m">picture of the drain.
Photograph: Philippe Desmazes/AFP/Getty Imagesh.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8716240/Libya-live.html">the Daily Telegraph's live blog, reporter Ben Farmer says he has has been to the site in Sirte where Gaddafi was reportedly captured. He says Gaddafi was "cornered in a drain underneath a road in open countryside to the west of the city of Sirte". Gaddafi's vehicles tried to get out of the town, were hit by a Nato airstrike, and Gaddafi and several bodyguards took refuge in a drain, where they were found by NTC fighters. The Telegraph blog has an AFP "http://twitpic.com/73344m">picture of the drain.Conflicting news reports over #Gaddafi son Seif Al Islam's capture after the death of Muammar Gaddafi has been verified by the NTC
Our interactive map shows the progress of anti-Gaddafi fighters through the fallen dictator's hometown. Did Gaddafi try to flee the closing stages of the fighting?
Sky News is reporting that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, Gaddafi's most high-profile son, is still at large in the southern Libyan desert. We cannot confirm this.
Confusion still surrounds the status of Gaddafi and several senior figures of his regime. Here's what is being said
