SIRTE (Agencies) - Toppled Libyan strongman  Moamer Gaddafi was reportedly killed Thursday in a final assault by new  regime forces on the last pocket of resistance in his hometown Sirte,  sparking wild joy and celebratory gunfire across the North African Arab  country.
Though claims of his death were  quite convincing and video emerged purporting to show Colonel Gaddafi  being captured alive and bundled on to a truck, the circumstances of his  death remained unclear till filling of this report. Fighters loyal to  the National Transitional Council (NTC) claimed they found him hiding in  a hole, and shot him when he tried to escape. But if Gaddafi’s death is  confirmed, it will also confirm that he kept his pledge made with his  supporters that he “will die fighting and will never flee his land”.
“We  announce to the world that Gaddafi has died in the custody of the  revolution,” NTC spokesman Abdel Hafez Ghoga said in the eastern city of  Benghazi. “It is an historic moment. It is the end of tyranny and  dictatorship. Gaddafi has met his fate,” he added. He said that the  fugitive former Libyan leader’s death has been “confirmed by our  commanders on the ground in Sirte, those who captured him after he had  been wounded in the battle for Sirte.” The colonel, who was toppled in  August after 42 years in power, was fighting in Sirte alongside his two  sons, Mutassim and Saif al-Islam, according to reports. NTC officials  said Mutassim was also killed in battle on Thursday. The man, who was  hated at home for his alleged brutality and disdained in the West for  his moral and material support to anti-imperialist forces, enjoyed great  influence in Arab World as well as in many parts of Africa, before his  regime was effectively toppled by rebels with the armed and financial  support of the West. 
He was also revered  among many Muslims for his unflinching support to Palestinians and  commanded great respect among the Anti-American Latin circles as one of  the last iconic figures of resistance to the capitalists.
Gaddafi  also won the hearts of Pakistanis with his exemplary support to the  country, especially after the fall of Dhaka. He was a personal friend of  the larger-than-life men like Bhutto, Yasir Arafat, King Faisal, Nelson  Mendela and President Ortega of Nicaragua.
As  anti-Gaddafi Libyans on the streets of Tripoli and Sirte fired  automatic weapons into the air and danced for joy, most of the world  leaders welcomed Gaddafi’s demise as the end of despotism, tyranny,  dictatorship and ultimately war in the north African country.
NTC  fighters who had fought in the bloody seven-month conflict that toppled  the veteran leader at a cost of more than 25,000 lives, erupted in  jubilation at the news, which followed earlier reports that Gaddafi had  been captured alive.
A photograph taken on a  mobile phone appeared to show the 69-year-old Gaddafi, toppled by NTC  fighters in August, heavily bloodied. In the blurry image, Gaddafi is  seen with blood-soaked clothing and blood daubed across his face.
A video circulating among NTC fighters in Sirte showed mobile phone footage of what appeared to be Gaddafi’s bloodied corpse.
In  the grainy images, a large number of NTC fighters are seen yelling in  chaotic scenes around a khaki-clad body which has blood oozing from the  face and neck. The body is then dragged off by the fighters and loaded  in the back of a pick-up truck.
Libyan television said Gaddafi had suffered bullet wounds to the head and stomach.
Another  NTC commander, said one of Gaddafi’s sons, Mutassim, was also killed in  Sirte. “We found him dead. We put his body and that of (former defence  minister) Abu Bakr Yunis Jabar in an ambulance to take them to Misrata,”  said Mohamed Leith.
“Saif al-Islam is  trying to flee Sirte in a small convoy. Our fighters are encircling  them,” another NTC official Abdel Majid Mlegta told Reuters.
News  of Gaddafi’s death came as new regime troops overran the last redoubt  of his loyalists in Sirte, bringing to an end a two-month siege.  Fighters moving in from east and west overcame the last resistance in  the city’s Number Two residential neighbourhood where his diehard  supporters had been holed up.
“Sirte has  been liberated, and with the confirmation that Gaddafi is dead,” Libya  has been completely liberated, a top NTC military official, Khalifa  Haftar, told AFP in Tripoli. “Those who were fighting with Gaddafi have  either been killed or captured,” he added.
Pick-up  trucks blaring out patriotic music criss-crossed the streets of Sirte  Thursday afternoon, as fighters flashed V for victory signs and chanted  Allahu Akbar (God is greatest). 
“We did  it! We did it!” chanted the fighters overcome with emotion, exchanging  well-wishes, hugs and handshakes against a backdrop of intense  celebratory gunfire.
Gaddafi was wanted by  the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity  but Libyan leaders had said they wanted him captured alive so he could  be put on trial in his home country.
NTC  official Mlegta told Reuters that Gaddafi had been wounded in both legs  early in the morning as he tried to flee in the convoy which Nato  warplanes attacked. “He was also hit in his head,” he said. “There was a  lot of firing against his group and he died.”
In  Brussels, a Nato spokesman said two alliance aircraft on Thursday  morning struck two pro-Gaddafi military vehicles near Sirte.
“At  approximately 0830 local time (GMT+2) today, Nato aircraft struck two  pro-Gaddafi forces military vehicles which were part of a larger group  manoeuvring in the vicinity of Sirte,” Nato spokesman Colonel Roland  Lavoie said in a statement.
A Nato diplomat  said checks were underway to verify reports by the NTC that the convoy  in which Gaddafi was travelling was stopped by Nato strikes.
However,  the US government said that it was unable to substantiate reports that  deposed Libyan leader Gaddafi has been captured or killed.
“The  State Department cannot at this time confirm media reports on the  capture or killing of Moamer Gaddafi,” State Department spokesperson  Victoria Nuland said in a statement. Senior administration and Pentagon  officials said they were working to verify the reports.
Medics  said that at least three NTC fighters were killed and 30 wounded in  Sirte on Thursday after 18 were killed and around 180 wounded over the  previous two days.
The fall of Sirte marks a  milestone. Libya’s new rulers had said that only once the city had  fallen would they declare the country’s liberation and begin the  transition to an elected government.
In the  end loyalist forces were limited to a tiny enclave of less than a  square kilometre which had been completely cut-off by the besieging NTC  forces who controlled the entire seafront of the Mediterranean coastal  city as well as all of its landward sides.
Sirte  once had 100,000 inhabitants, almost all of whom have fled. Fierce  artillery battles and heavy gunfire over the past month have not left a  single building intact, while looting has become commonplace as NTC  fighters take their revenge on the Gaddafi bastion.