--- title: How Muammar Gaddafi died url: https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/endings/muammar-gaddafi/ description: Muammar Gaddafi, who had ruled Libya since 1969, was captured wounded near Sirte on 20 October 2011 by fighters from Misrata and was dead within hours… section: FRAME --- ![Illustration: a redacted Cold War intelligence-dossier collage centred on a world map of influence operations, with the U.S. Capitol among the evidence.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/hero-home.jpg) [Regimes](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/) / [How they died](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/endings/) # How Muammar Gaddafi died At a glance The Libyan leader was captured wounded near Sirte on 20 October 2011 by Misrata-based fighters after his convoy was hit by NATO aircraft; the Libyan authorities said he died in crossfire, while the UN and Human Rights Watch found he was alive when captured and say his death needs investigating. - **Leader:** Muammar Gaddafi - **Died:** 20 October 2011 - **Place:** Near Sirte, Libya - **Cause:** Died in the hands of Misrata-based fighters after capture; the exact cause is disputed - **Regime:** Libya under Muammar Gaddafi On this page - [The final days](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/endings/muammar-gaddafi/#the-final-days) - [The death](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/endings/muammar-gaddafi/#the-death) - [What happened to the body](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/endings/muammar-gaddafi/#what-happened-to-the-body) - [How the death was announced and used](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/endings/muammar-gaddafi/#how-the-death-was-announced-and-used) - [Timeline](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/endings/muammar-gaddafi/#timeline) - [Same-standard note](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/endings/muammar-gaddafi/#same-standard-note) - [Sources](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/endings/muammar-gaddafi/#sources) **In one line:** Muammar Gaddafi, who had ruled Libya since 1969, was captured wounded near Sirte on 20 October 2011 by fighters from Misrata and was dead within hours; the National Transitional Council said he was shot in crossfire, while the UN Commission of Inquiry and Human Rights Watch found he was alive when captured and could not establish how he died. ## The final days Gaddafi had led Libya for 42 years, since the army officers' coup of 1 September 1969 that overthrew the monarchy (Congressional Research Service). Protests against his rule began in February 2011, and as Human Rights Watch records, the security forces opened fire on protesters and the movement became an armed uprising. An opposition National Transitional Council (NTC) formed in Benghazi on 27 February. On 17 March the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1973, authorising "all necessary measures" short of occupation to protect civilians, and NATO's Operation Unified Protector followed. Tripoli fell to opposition forces in late August 2011. Gaddafi and his circle left the capital in separate convoys. ![Muammar Gaddafi in a gold embroidered robe and cap speaking at a wooden lectern bearing the United Nations emblem](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/images/endings/muammar-gaddafi-1.jpg) Gaddafi speaking as chairperson of the African Union at its summit in Addis Ababa on 2 February 2009, in a US Navy photograph. [Source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Muammar_al-Gaddafi,_12th_AU_Summit,_090202-N-0506A-534.jpg): US Navy photograph by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jesse B. Awalt, VIRIN 090202-N-0506A-534, 2 February 2009, Public domain (work of the US federal government; Commons tag public domain). ![A man in a red beret and a dark hooded top holds up the burnt cover of a small green book beside a charred doorway](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/images/endings/muammar-gaddafi-2.jpg) A Benghazi resident shows the cover of a burnt copy of Gaddafi's Green Book on 26 February 2011, in the first weeks of the uprising, in a photograph by Al Jazeera English. [Source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Inside_the_muderiya_-_Flickr_-_Al_Jazeera_English_(1).jpg): Photograph by Al Jazeera English, 26 February 2011, via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0. He went to Sirte, his home town, where his son Mutassim commanded the defence. According to Mansour Dhao, one of his companions, whom Human Rights Watch interviewed, the group moved from house to house under shelling, short of food, water and medicine, with almost no communication. Dhao said Gaddafi spent most of his time reading the Koran and praying. Human Rights Watch could not confirm his account independently but says it matched other survivors'. ## The death On the morning of 20 October 2011, Mutassim Gaddafi ordered a convoy of about 50 vehicles to leave the besieged District 2 of Sirte, with Muammar Gaddafi and his inner circle in it, according to Human Rights Watch. A NATO statement gives the time of the first air strike as about 08:30 local time. It says NATO aircraft struck 11 armed vehicles from a larger group of about 75 (a figure above Human Rights Watch's), and later a group of about 20, and that "at the time of the strike, NATO did not know that Qadhafi was in the convoy". Human Rights Watch reports a drone-fired missile followed by two airburst bombs from a warplane, which killed dozens of the occupants, and that the survivors then fought with Misrata militia. Gaddafi and others sheltered in a villa compound and then tried to escape through two drainage pipes under a main road. ![A man in camouflage trousers and a cap aims a rifle out of a square window in a bare concrete room with writing on the walls](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/images/endings/muammar-gaddafi-3.jpg) A fighter aiming from a window in Sirte, in a photograph dated 13 October 2011 by Diar Aladnani for Fars News Agency. The file page does not say which side he belongs to. [Source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sirte_in_October_2011_(03).jpg): Photograph by Diar Aladnani for Fars News Agency, 13 October 2011, CC BY 4.0. ![Several men praying on mats on stony ground beside a road, with pickup trucks and rising smoke in the background](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/images/endings/muammar-gaddafi-4.jpg) Men praying at the edge of the fighting around Sirte in the same set of photographs of 13 October 2011, a week before Gaddafi was captured. [Source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sirte_in_October_2011_(09).jpg): Photograph by Diar Aladnani for Fars News Agency, 13 October 2011, CC BY 4.0. Survivors told Human Rights Watch that a bodyguard threw grenades at the fighters above; one bounced back, killing the defence minister, Abu Bakr Younis, and wounding Gaddafi in the head. Fighters from Misrata then seized him. Human Rights Watch says that footage of the first three minutes and 38 seconds after his capture shows him bleeding and being beaten and that he was stabbed with what appears to be a bayonet. A Misrata brigade commander told Human Rights Watch: "He was alive when I saw him". Gaddafi was put in an ambulance for the road to Misrata. The accounts of his death then diverge. **The NTC account.** On 20 October the interim prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, told reporters in Tripoli that Gaddafi had been shot in the head "in crossfire" between his supporters and NTC fighters after his capture. He added that Gaddafi "was alive up to last moment, until he arrived at hospital". On 24 October the NTC chairman, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, announced a commission to investigate the circumstances of his death "in the clash with his [inner] circle when he was captured". **The UN Human Rights Office.** On 21 October its spokesman, Rupert Colville, said there was a need for an investigation to ascertain "whether he was killed in the fighting or after his capture". He said there were at least two mobile-phone videos, one showing Gaddafi alive and one dead, and that "taken together, these videos are very disturbing". **The UN Commission of Inquiry.** Its March 2012 report found that Muammar and Mutassim Gaddafi were captured separately by Misrata fighters and, though wounded, "were alive on capture and subsequently died in thuwar custody". It was refused the autopsy report, could not determine the cause of death from photographs and had "inconsistent accounts from secondary sources", and so was "unable to confirm the death of Muammar Qadhafi as an unlawful killing". **Human Rights Watch.** Its October 2012 report concluded that Gaddafi was captured alive and abused, and that by the time he reached Misrata he was "almost certainly dead". It said it could not tell whether he died from a gunshot inflicted after capture, from shrapnel wounds or from the abuse, and that his death "should be investigated as a possible extra-judicial killing". It noted unconfirmed claims by some Benghazi fighters that they shot him. Libya's chief forensic pathologist, Dr Othman al-Zintani, carried out an autopsy on or around 22 and 23 October and told the press at first that Gaddafi died of a gunshot wound to the head. The full report has not been published or given to the UN commission. ## What happened to the body Gaddafi's body was taken to Misrata and, with that of Mutassim, laid out in a commercial cold store in a vegetable market. Hundreds queued to see the bodies for about four days. Human Rights Watch researchers briefly inspected them on 21 October. The NTC delayed the burial amid calls for an investigation. At dawn on 25 October the bodies of Gaddafi, Mutassim and Abu Bakr Younis were buried in a secret desert location. An NTC commander, Abdel Majid Mlegta, announced: "He has just been buried now in the desert along with his son." Officials said the place was withheld so that it would not become a shrine. The burial place has not been made public. ![Illustration: a microfilm reader and card-catalogue drawers with film strips and index cards.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/graphics/microfilm-archive.jpg) Illustration, not an archive object ## How the death was announced and used The NTC announced the death on 20 October. Photographs and mobile-phone video were broadcast and posted online within hours. The NTC declared the liberation of Libya on 23 October. Also on 20 October, President Barack Obama said in the Rose Garden: "The dark shadow of tyranny has been lifted." NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance and its partners had implemented the UN mandate "to protect the people of Libya". Asked about the reports during an interview in Kabul on 20 October, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said "We came, we saw, he died". Gaddafi's family and their lawyers used the footage differently. His daughter Aisha, through a lawyer, asked the International Criminal Court prosecutor in December 2011 whether he would investigate the killings, saying her father and brother were captured alive. In a letter published on the second anniversary, 20 October 2013, his widow Safia Farkash asked the UN, the EU and the African Union to say where the remains were so that they could be buried (France 24). The ICC prosecutor said that the way Gaddafi was killed "creates suspicions of … war crimes". When Human Rights Watch reported in October 2012, no result of a Libyan investigation into his death had been published and the ICC had not opened one. The Misrata prosecutor told Human Rights Watch in March 2012 that his inquiry was "nearly finished". Human Rights Watch added that the authorities had taken no serious steps to investigate the deaths of dozens of detainees found at the Mahari Hotel in Sirte (its count is at least 53 and possibly 66; the UN commission gave 65 to 78), killings both bodies attribute to Misrata-based fighters. ## Timeline - 1 September 1969: A group of army officers led by Captain Gaddafi seizes power in Benghazi and abolishes the monarchy; he is promoted to colonel and named commander in chief. - February 2011: Protests begin; the security forces open fire. - 27 February 2011: The National Transitional Council forms in Benghazi. - 17 March 2011: UN Security Council Resolution 1973. - Late August 2011: Tripoli falls; Gaddafi leaves for Sirte. - 20 October 2011: The convoy is hit by NATO aircraft; Gaddafi is captured and dies; Mutassim dies the same day. - 21 to 24 October 2011: The bodies are displayed in Misrata. - 21 October 2011: UN Human Rights Office calls for an investigation. - 23 October 2011: The NTC declares the liberation of Libya. - 25 October 2011: Burial in a secret desert location. - 2 March 2012: UN Commission of Inquiry report. - 17 October 2012: Human Rights Watch report "Death of a Dictator". ## Same-standard note This page uses the project's working definitions: it says who did what, when and where, and names the source of each competing account without choosing between them beyond what the documents show. Gaddafi died in the hands of armed opponents, in the middle of a civil war and a UN-authorised air campaign, with no trial. That differs from leaders who were tried, who died in office or in their beds, and from leaders whose death was announced by their own successors. The page does not treat those cases as equivalent. ## Sources - Human Rights Watch, "Death of a Dictator: Bloody Vengeance in Sirte", 17 October 2012: https://www.hrw.org/report/2012/10/16/death-dictator/bloody-vengeance-sirte - Report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Libya, A/HRC/19/68, 2 March 2012, paragraphs 32 to 34 and 121: https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session19/A.HRC.19.68.pdf - UN News, "Libya: UN human rights office calls for probe into Qadhafi's death", 21 October 2011: https://news.un.org/en/story/2011/10/392472 - NATO statement on the air strikes of 20 October 2011, as published by the Atlantic Council: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/natosource/official-nato-statement-on-air-strikes-against-gaddafi-convoy/ - Al Jazeera, "Muammar Gaddafi killed as Sirte falls", 21 October 2011: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2011/10/21/muammar-gaddafi-killed-as-sirte-falls - Time, "How Did Gaddafi Die? A Year Later, Unanswered Questions and Bad Blood": https://time.com/archive/7152392/how-did-gaddafi-die-a-year-later-unanswered-questions-and-bad-blood/ - ABC News (Australia), "Gaddafi buried in secret location at dawn", 25 October 2011: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-25/gaddafi-buried-in-secret-location-at-dawn/3600098 - France 24, "Gaddafi and son buried at dawn in secret location", 25 October 2011: https://www.france24.com/en/20111025-libya-gaddafi-cold-storage-national-transitional-council-burial - Remarks by the President on the death of Muammar Qaddafi, 20 October 2011: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2011/10/20/remarks-president-death-muammar-qaddafi/ - CBS News, "Clinton on Qaddafi: 'We came, we saw, he died'": https://www.cbsnews.com/news/clinton-on-qaddafi-we-came-we-saw-he-died/ - Congressional Research Service, "Libya: Background and U.S. Relations" (RL33142), 4 November 2005: https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/20051104_RL33142_008207b1a4908ddec4f1200597594c32206bcea7.pdf - France 24, "Gaddafi's widow demands return of dictator's body", 21 October 2013: https://www.france24.com/en/20131021-muammar-gaddafi-widow-demands-return-libya-dictator-body-safia-farkash - Al Jazeera, "Gaddafi's daughter seeks probe into his death", 15 December 2011: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2011/12/15/gaddafis-daughter-seeks-probe-into-his-death - Al Jazeera, "ICC prosecutor: Concerns over Gaddafi's death", 16 December 2011: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2011/12/16/icc-prosecutor-concerns-over-gaddafis-death