'Nobody here killed Gaddafi': Misrata fighters

Misrata: Faced with suspicions of an execution by a lynch mob, the order that “nobody here killed Gaddafi” has gone around to the fighters who captured alive the ex-strongman of Libya. The fighters at a farm on the outskirts of the city of Misrata that serves as their Al-Ghiran brigade base proudly exhibit the ousted leader’s black boots, gold-plated gun and beige scarf. [caption id=“attachment_114752” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The Al-Ghiran brigade base proudly exhibits the ousted leader’s black boots, gold-plated gun and beige scarf. AFP Photo”]  [/caption] Souvenir photographs are taken standing in front of the pickup in which Gaddafi was hauled off after being captured on Thursday in his loyalists’ final stronghold of Sirte. Dried blood stains the front of the vehicle to which Gaddafi was seen being hauled in mobile phone footage. Since the fighters’ return from the final frontline in the eight-month-long conflict, Gaddafi’s golden pistol, machinegun and satellite phone have been passing from hand to hand. “The last phone call received on his Thuraya came from Syria. It was a lady on the phone,” according to a brigade member. Omran Shaaban, 21, says he was the first to locate the man who ruled Libya for four decades in a concrete drainage pipe. “When I saw him, I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t think. I thought: ‘That’s it, Gaddafi is finished’,” he said. Ahmed Gazal, a comrade, said they had just arrived to join a final assault on Sirte when they ran into a group of survivors from a NATO air strike on a convoy of pro-Gaddafi fighters trying to make an escape.  After a brief exchange of gunfire, they were informed of Gaddafi’s hiding place in the pipe. “Omran was close to Gaddafi. He grabbed him first, then I said ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is greatest) and I took his legs outside … When he came out of the pipe, he said: ‘What’s going on, what’s happening’?” Gazal said. “When I was face to face with him, I thought about all his crimes. I thought he was a big character, but in fact he was just a small mouse,” he said, adding that Gaddafi was bloodied and weak when found. In the mobile footage, Gaddafi is seen being manhandled by a group of fighters as he is dragged off to the pickup. Shaaban says he was then taken to an ambulance for transfer to Misrata. AFP