Welcome to Middle East Live. Here's a round up of the latest developments.
Syria
• The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 17 people were killed in Syria, including three teenage girls and a woman, while at least seven soldiers died in clashes with suspected army defectors, al-Jazeera reports. It said eight people were killed in Homs, central Syria, including four shot dead by Shabiha, an armed civilian group that supports Assad's government.
• Libya's interim government has become the first in the world to recognise Syria's opposition movement as a "legitimate authority" to rule Syria. Guma el-Gamaty, the UK-based co-ordinator for Libya's National Transitional Council, urged other countries to do the same. "We feel the Syrian people have been let down by the world, and they need moral and political support," he said.
• A former Syrian vice president who became one of the country's most prominent dissidents was kidnapped in Lebanon five months ago while visiting his daughter and is believed to be secretly imprisoned by the Syrian regime as it tries to crush a 7-month-old uprising, his daughter and Lebanese police said, according to AP. The abduction of Shibli al-Aisamy, an 88-year-old who holds permanent US residency, has raised alarm among some in Lebanon that members of the country's security forces are helping Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime in its crackdown on anti-government protesters, effectively extending it into Lebanon to prevent it from becoming a safe haven for the Syrian
Libya
• Libya's acting prime minister has said that Muammar Gaddafi is believed to be recruiting fighters from other African countries and preparing for a possible insurgency, hoping to destabilise Libya's new regime. Mahmoud Jibril said: "Reports have shown that 68 vehicles with at least eight fighters each crossed the Libyan borders to Mali and Gaddafi is hiding in the southern desert."
• Libyan interim government fighters have renewed their offensive on the besieged town of Sirte after being pushed back by Gaddafi loyalists holed up in the deposed leader's home town. Grad rockets, artillery and tank fire rained down on pro-Gaddafi positions in the centre of the town on Wednesday, Reuters reports.
• Anti-Gaddafi forces in Sirte have unveiled their latest home-made weapon. The BBC describes it as a cross between a bulldozer and a battleship.
Tunisia
• Tunisians speak of their hopes for the future as more than 100 political parties contest elections on Sunday. Angelique Chrisafis in Tunis provides a guide to the five key parties: An-Nahda (Renaissance); the Progressive Democratic party (PDP), Ettakatol, Congress for the Republic, Modernist Democratic Pole.
• Those contesting the election have been urged provide a clear commitment protect human rights after a survey of the parties found disagreements on the protection of minorities against hate speech, and the defamation of religions. Human Right Watch, which conducted the survey, called on the constituent assembly to guarantee equality and non-discrimination.
• For full coverage of the elections and build up to Sunday's poll visit out Tunisian Elections pages.
Israel and the Palestinian territories
• Intelligence officials are planning to wait for at least several days before beginning the delicate process of debriefing Gilad Shalit on his five years and four months in captivity in Gaza at the hands of Palestinian militants. The priority is to establish his physical and psychological health, according to military and government sources.
• Many of the newly released Palestinian prisoners spent their first full day of freedom being feted at home by streams of well-wishers bearing gifts and flowers. All the prisoners describe their detention as brutal with long periods of solitary confinement.
Some residents are returning to Sirte to protect their homes from being looted by forces loyal to the new government, the BBC reports.
One returning resident, Mohammed Sayeh, said anti-government forces took a computer, a mobile phone and his passport. He said he came back to stop the house being burnt down.
Breaking: AP is reporting that Sirte has fallen.
Witnesses: Libyan fighters overrun last positions of Gadhafi loyalists in Sirte, city falls.
Government forces have captured the last remaining Gaddafi positions in Sirte, Reuters confirms, citing frontline commanders.
AP has more details on the fall of Sirte:
Libyan fighters have overrun the last positions of Gaddafi loyalists holding out in the city of Sirte and the revolutionaries now have all of the ousted leader's hometown within their hands.
Reporters on the scene say the final push to capture the remaining pro-Gadhafi positions began around 8am on Thursday and was over after about 90 minutes. Just before the assault, about five carloads of loyalists tried to flee the enclave down the coastal highway but were killed by revolutionaries.
Revolutionaries began searching homes and buildings looking for any Gaddafi fighters who may be hiding there.
Reuters has quotes from commanders:
"Sirte has been liberated. There are no Gaddafi forces any more," said Colonel Yunus Al Abdali, head of operations in the eastern half of the city. "We are now chasing his fighters who are trying to run away."
Another front line commander confirmed the capture of the Mediterranean coastal city, which was the last remaining significant bastion of pro-Gaddafi fighters almost three months after the ex-leader was overthrown by rebels.
Mahmoud Jibril, Libya's Interim Leader, has hinted that he may step down as soon as today.
In an interview with Time magazine's Vivienne Walt, Jibril described the frustrations of Libya's political power struggle.
He sadi: "We have moved into a political struggle with no boundaries. The political struggle requires finances, organisation, arms and ideologies. I am afraid I don't have any of this."
Walt writes:
Jibril, who heads the executive board of the rebels' National Transitional Council, did not say exactly when he would resign, but hinted that it could be as soon as Thursday, when a televised meeting of his group would detail what it had accomplished since Gaddafi's ouster, he said. In a grim assessment of Libya's current state, Jibril suggested that as the war dragged on, he had found governing the country was increasingly difficult.
There are reports that some Gaddafi loyalists are continuing to fight in Sirte.
Barry Malone a Reuters journalist tweets:
Hearing some Gaddafi supporters still taking potshots in Sirte #Libya
Blake Hounshell from Foreign Policy magazine:
There's still a Gaddafi convoy west of Sirte, AJA reports, and clashes ongoing. Any big names in it, I wonder?
BBC reporter Peter Biles:
#Libya. Live TV pictures show NTC victory celebrations in #Sirte, but is it really all over?
Alaeddin Muntasser, a Malta based volunteer helping aid efforts to Libya, quips:
If the news about #Sirte is true, it has to be the monster dozer that did it :) Who can see that coming and stand his ground??
Al-Jazeera is being cautious about reports that Sirte has fallen. It says government forces are "poised" to take the city, while it shows pictures of fighters celebrating victory and burning the green flag of the Gaddafi regime.
Al Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from Tripoli, said: "Some high level members [of the NTC] ... are aware of the pictures [of Sirte] being broadcast.
"They are on their phones right now to Sirte trying to confirm this. If it is true that Sirte has fallen, or is about to fall, then it is very very important news.
"Because all along the NTC has said that once Sirte falls, the war will be over."
Al Jazeera also reports that around 100 cars have been seen fleeing Sirte and have been involved in clashes.
Al Jazeera has broadcast footage of government fighters hoisting flags of the interim government over Sirte.
The network is now confirming that Sirte has fallen. It also reports that one of Gaddafi's cousins, Ahmed Ibrahim, was arrested trying to flee Sirte in that convoy.
Ibrahim was responsible for education under the Gaddafi regime.
Reuters has more on the hoisting of the government flag in Sirte:
Libyan interim government fighters hoisted the new national flag above the centre of Sirte on Thursday after completing their capture of Muammar Gaddafi's home town, the last serious pocket of resistance by loyalists of the ousted leader.
A Reuters witness said celebratory gunfire broke out among National Transitional Council forces as the flag was raised above a large utilities building in the Mediterranean city, which had been under NTC siege for nearly two months.
Tripoli residents have been warned not to start firing in celebration at the fall of Sirte, BBC producer Jonny Hallam reports.
People in #Tripoli have been told not to fire guns in celebration or will be arrested. #Libya #Sirte
Tripoli resident Ali Tweel Aries tweets:
I will not declair victory until we capture Gaddafi, now go fire your bullets in the air celebrating like an idiot. I'm keeping my bullets.
By the way, yesterday there was a wedding in Bab Ben Ghashier, nobody fired a single shot in the air. Only fireworks. it was a great moment.
Libya's interim government forces appeared taken Sirte without direct help from Nato.
Nato jets hit no targets over Libya yesterday, and haven't hit anything in Sirte for more than a week.
The Guardian has a day by day guide to the bombing campaign.
We may have spoken too soon about Nato's involvement in Sirte.
Al Jazeera's Evan Hill tweets:
NATO reportedly firing at a convoy of cars leaving Sirte. #Libya
Please treat the following with lots of caution, but the Misrata Military Council is reporting that Gaddafi himself has been arrested.
This is not confirmed. In an email the Information Centre for the Misrata Military Council said:
Now in contact with our correspondent at the front of the Sirte. The tyrant Muammar Gaddafi Was arrested. God is great and thank God
A Libyan TV station has reportedly just announced that Muammar Gaddafi has been captured. The report cannot be confirmed at this stage.
Mahmoud Shammam, the NTC's information minister. was just on al-Jazeera, and alluded to the capture of Gaddafi but refused to confirm it.
He said:
I think we can say that Sirte is liberated ...I think the celebrations are going on right now. Also there's big talk about some big fish on their way to Misrata. I cannot confirm anything but people over there are talking they caught a big fish.
Asked what would happen if Gaddafi had been captured, Shammam said:
We are going to put him in fornt of the court, we're not going to hang him in the street. We are going to give him the fair trial he never gave the Libyan people. We hope that we are catching some big names so we can put them in the court and let the people have the last word on their fate ...I think every Libyan wants to see Gaddafi stand trial.
An NTC official has told al-Jazeera that Gaddafi has been captured and was wounded while being detained. There is still no independent verification available.
Reuters is quoting NTC official Abdel Majid as saying Gaddafi has been wounded in both legs.
The Libyan immigration minister, Ali Errishi, has just told al-Jazeera that he has spoken to fighters who have told him Gaddafi has been captured, along with his spokesman Moussa Ibrahim. But still we await independent confirmation. Errishi said Gaddafi is wounded, adding:
He is, as we speak, in the custody of the freedom fighters ....I'm very, very confident [in my sources] ...They would not have woken me up early in the morning all the way from Misrata, I am in [Washington] DC [if it was not true].
Al-Jazeera is reporting that Nato forces fired on the convoy, although that report is also unconfirmed.
Reuters is quoting a Libyan government fighter who says he witnessed the capture of Gaddafi. He said the ousted dictator was hiding in a hole shouting "Don't shoot, don't shoot".
Al-Jazeera is reporting that he is in a critical condition. But the picture remains confused.
The Associated Press news agency says the chief spokesman for the National Transitional Council, Jalal el-Gallal, and the NTC's military spokesman, Abdul-Rahman Busin, say that reports of Gaddafi's capture are still unconfirmed.
According to Sky News, the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, is calling the capture of Gaddafi good news.
Sky News is now saying its sources are confirming the capture.
We still cannot confirm this.
Here's a summary of the latest developments:
• Muammar Gaddafi has been captured fleeing Sirte, according to unconfirmed reports by some National Transitional Council officials. The NTC's information minister, Mahmoud Shamman, refused to confirm the reports, but said "big fish" are on their way to Misrata. Gaddafi is reported to have been critically injured in both legs while being detained. "Don't shoot, don't shoot," he is reported to have said. We cannot confirm that he has been captured.
• A number of high ranking Gaddafi officials are also reported to have been caught including his spokesman Moussa Ibrahim and his cousin Ahmed Ibrahim. "We hope that we are catching some big names so we can put them in the court and let the people have the last word on their fate," Shamman said.
• Reports of the arrests came after the fall of Gaddafi's final stronghold of Sirte. The city was captured after a 90 minute offensive this morning. Fighters hoisted flags of the new interim government over the city and burned the green flag of the ousted Gaddafi regime. "Sirte has been liberated. There are no Gaddafi forces any more," said Colonel Yunus Al Abdali.
• Mahmoud Jibril, Libya's Interim Leader, has hinted that he may step down today. In an interview with Time magazine he also complained about political infighting in the new Libya.
Al Jazeera is now reporting that Gaddafi was killed in Sirte. Reuters is saying that Gaddafi died of his wounds. We cannot confirm this.
My colleague Chris Stephen has seen a statement on the arrest of Gaddafi - which we still cannot confirm - from Misrata military council.
The statement said: "The tyrant Muammar Gaddafi Was arrested on by Misurata Thwarr [revolutionary fighters]." It added: "God is great and thank God."
Chris writes:
Hassan Elamin, a prominent Libyan exile who has lived for 28 years in the UK and is the editor of the online Libyan newspaper Libya Almostakbal said he had called Misrata today and that Gaddafi was reportedly being held in Misrata, Libya's third largest city. He said the city was in the middle of wild celebrations. "We're still taking in the news," he told the Guardian. "This is a big buzz."
Elamin said Gaddafi was arrested by Misratan units in Sirte late last night and reportedly transported to a secure location in the city and that in the same arrest Gaddafi's former defence minister Abu Bakr Yunis was shot dead.
What happens to Gaddafi now is unclear. Misrata military council is on record as stating that it recognises the authority of the ruling National Transitional Council but does not accept its commands. Earlier this year Misratan war crimes investigators told the Observer they had complied evidence against Gaddafi including documents purportedly showing his forces being ordered to commit war crimes during the siege of Misrata.
Here's the Reuters tweet announcing Gaddafi's death, which we cannot confirm:
FLASH: Libya's Gaddafi dies of wounds suffered in capture near Sirte - senior NTC military official
Sky News is reporting live from Tripoli, where there is a cacophony of celebration behind its reporter, with car horns beeping non-stop.
The US state department cannot confirm Gaddafi's capture, never mind his reported killing.
Reuters reports:
"We've seen the media reports but can't confirm them," state department spokeswoman Beth Gosselin told Reuters.
White House officials were not immediately available to comment. The Pentagon also said it could not confirm the reports.
A senior official with Libya's National Transitional Council told Reuters that Gaddafi was captured near his hometown of Sirte at dawn as he tried to flee in a convoy that came under attack from Nato warplanes.
Nato said it was checking reports of the capture of Gaddafi and said they could take some time to confirm.
.
NTC officials in Tripoli continue to refuse to confirm that Gaddafi has been captured.
Channel 4 News' Lindsey Hilsum tweets:
All major news agencies reporting #Gadaffi dead or captured but NTC officials here in #tripoli won't confirm.
An NTC commander, Abdel-Basit Haroun, says Gaddafi was killed when an airstrike hit a convoy trying to flee, according to the Associated Press. We cannot confirm this.
Guma el-Gamaty, the former NTC coordinator in the UK, is telling Sky News Gaddafi and his close aides tried to escape and freedom fighters tried to capture them. There was an exchange of fire and reports claim he was killed or injured, Gamaty says. We cannot confirm this.
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGE It is claimed that this image, from a mobile phone, shows the arrest of Gaddafi.
Photograph: Philippe Desmazes/AFP/Getty Images
Apologies - it is quite a grisly image.
An NTC spokesman is telling Sky News that Gaddafi is dead and the body is arriving in Misrata "any minute now". We cannot confirm this.
Nato is confirming its aircraft struck pro-Gaddafi military vehicles near Sirte today.
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, says she can't confirm his capture or dead but if it is true she would breathe a sigh of relief as one more obstacle was removed.
Killed, captured or whereabouts unconfirmed? Here's a quick guide to who is saying what about Gaddafi at this stage:
Killed: NTC commander Abdel-Basit Haroun said Gaddafi was killed when an airstrike hit a convoy trying to flee Sirte. National Transitional Council official Abdel Majid Mlegta told Reuters. "There was a lot of firing against his group and he died.
NTC spokesman in Misrata Abdullah Berrassali told Sky News: "Gaddafi is dead, absolutely dead. He was shot in both legs and a bullet in the head. The body will be arriving in Misrata any minute now." Libyan TV and al-Jazeera are also reporting that Gaddafi is dead.
Captured: Misrata Military Council, one of the multiple command groups for the new government, says its fighters captured Gadhafi in Sirte.
Unconfirmed: A spokesman for Libya's transitional government, Jalal al-Gallal, and its military spokesman Abdul-Rahman Busin say the reports have not been confirmed. Nato and the US state department could not confirm any of the reports.
Nick Hopkins, the Guardian's defence correspondent, sends this:
The convoy in which is is thought Gaddafi was travelling was hit by a Nato airstrike at 6am, British time.
Two Nato aircraft bombed the vehicles as they fled Sirte. Neither were British planes, though two Tornado ground attack aircraft were on surveillance and reconnaissance missions at the time.
There is still no confirmation from here that Gaddafi was in the convoy, but that is what is being reported in Libya.
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGE The picture purportedly showing Muammar Gaddafi's capture we posted earlier seems to come from a video on a mobile phone. AFP has sent through another frame from the same video.
Photograph: Philippe Desmazes/AFP/Getty Images
Apologies - it is a graphic image. We cannot confirm that it shows his capture.
The Misrata Military council is also saying that Gaddafi has been killed. We cannot confirm this. In an email it said it would give a press conference later to explain how he died after being captured.
Channel 4 News's Lindsey Hilsum tweets the reaction in Tripoli to that picture appearing to show Gaddafi's dead body:
Great cries of Allah Akbar as tv shows picture of what looks like dead #Gadaffi. People going crazy.
Hilsum also says that the NTC information minister Mahmoud Shamman is now also confirming Gaddafi's death.
An NTC soldier is telling Sky News: "Somebody shot him with a 9mm."
Another soldier says he was shot in the belly.
This happened at 12.30, the soldiers say - but it is unclear if they mean am or pm.
Former defence minister Abu Bakr Yunis was the only one with him, the soldier says.
The other soldier says he saw it with his own eyes and that he hit Gaddafi with a shoe - a sign of severe disrespect in the Middle East.
None of this can be confirmed yet, and I have to say they were not the most convincing witnesses.
More NTC officials have confirmed Gaddafi's death. AFP's Sarah Hussein tweets:
NTC spokesman Abdul Hafiz Ghoga confirms to AFP that #Gaddafi (#Gadhafi) is dead #Libya
NTC's Kenshill on BBCWorld "Very reliable sources :#Gaddafi & 3 aides were killed in District 2 during the fight in #Sirte. #Libya #Tripoli
Libyan NTC information minister Mahmoud Shammam said he has confirmed that Gaddafi was killed, citing fighters who said they saw the body. He said he expected the NTC chairman Mustafa Abdul-Jalil to confirm the death soon, noting that past reports emerged "before making 100% confirmation".
"Our people in Sirte saw the body ... Mustafa Abdul-Jalil will confirm it soon," he told the Associated Press. "Revolutionaries say Gaddafi was in a convoy and that they attacked the convoy."
Jalil is due to speak soon.
There is mobile phone footage of the moment Gaddafi was captured, showing him alive, according to Al Jazeera. It also reports that Gaddafi's son Mutassim has been caught alive.
Reuters is claiming that a Libyan NTC military official has confirmed the photo we published earlier is of Muammar Gaddafi. Reuters is also saying that Gaddafi's corpse has arrived in Misrata, citing Al-Arabiya TV. Al-Arabiya says the media will be allowed to film the body. We cannot confirm either point.
Confusion still surrounds the status of Gaddafi and several senior figures of his regime. Here's what is being said:
Muammar Gaddafi
A number of NTC officials have said that he has been killed. The interim Libyan president, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, is expected to confirm his death soon.
Abu Bakr Yunis, former defence minister
Killed during the attack on Gaddafi's convoy, according to NTC official.
Mutassim Gaddafi, Muammar's son
Captured, according to al-Jazeera.
Moussa Ibrahim, Gaddafi's spokesman
Captured, according to NTC official official Abdel Majid Mlegta.
Abd Allah al-Sanusi, senior Libyan intelligence chief
Captured, according to pro-NTC Libya TV.
Ahmed Ibrahim, Gaddafi's cousin and adviser
Captured, according to Mlegta.
Mansour Daw, Gaddafi aide
Captured, according to pro-NTC Libya TV.
The BBC is also saying that three unnamed aides were killed alongside Gaddafi. However, a soldier said only Yunis was with Gaddafi.
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.
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?
This incomprehensible tweet from al-Arabiya really sums up the confusion of today's reports:
Conflicting news reports over #Gaddafi son Seif Al Islam's capture after the death of Muammar Gaddafi has been verified by the NTC
On 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 picture of the drain.
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.
AFP has also posted a picture purportedly of a man holding aloft Gaddafi's golden gun.
Reuters says the vice-chairman of the NTC, Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, is now confirming Gaddafi has been killed.
Here's that photo of the drain where Gaddafi was reportedly found (see 2.38pm).
An NTC fighter looks through a large concrete pipe where Muammar Gaddafi was allegedly captured today. Photograph: Philippe Desmazes/AFP/Getty Images
Al-Jazeera is now showing a close-up of Gaddafi's face. He does not seem to be alive.
We cannot confirm his death.
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGE Al-Jazeera is showing an image that appears to show Gaddafi's body.
Apologies - it is a graphic image.
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.
Sky News is showing the video again that purportedly shows the body of Muammar Gaddafi being manhandled in the streets of Sirte.
Sky's correspondent 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.
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."
"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 inkling that Muammar Gaddafi was in Sirte. Another of his sons, Mutassim, was reported to be there, but I don't believe it has ever been publicly [reported] that Gaddafi the father was in Sirte. That is a significant and surprising new element of today's developments.
The 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.
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.
The Associated Press news agency is reporting that Libyan leaders have told the US Gaddafi is dead, according to US officials.
Reuters seems confident Gaddafi is dead.
Photograph: Murdo Macleod
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.
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.
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 Twitter 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.
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.
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.
Muammar Gaddafi is dead, the NTC has just announced.
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 in Egypt 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.
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.
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 proud of the role Britian had played in allowing Libya to move towards a democratic future.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT. Mobile phone footage claiming 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.
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 allies and 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.
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!"
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 government.
• 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.
• 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.
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
Al Jazeera's Karl Stagno-Navarra tweets:
BREAKING: #Seif al Islam under heavy attack, reached by freedom fighters in #Alhera after he fled #Sirte attack that killed his father
The Guardian has published an obituary of Gaddafi. Here's how it ends:
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.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT.
Here is the mobile phone footage in full that purports to show Muammar Gaddafi's body in the streets of Sirte.
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 role that 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.
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.
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".
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.
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.