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Muammar Gaddafi 'buried in desert grave at dawn' | |
(about 2 hours later) | |
The bodies of ex-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, his son Mutassim and a top aide have been buried in secret in the desert, Libyan officials say. | |
A National Transitional Council (NTC) official told the BBC the bodies were buried at dawn in an unknown location. | A National Transitional Council (NTC) official told the BBC the bodies were buried at dawn in an unknown location. |
This follows days of apparent uncertainty among the new leadership about what to do with the bodies. | This follows days of apparent uncertainty among the new leadership about what to do with the bodies. |
Gaddafi's family wanted them buried outside the former leader's hometown of Sirte. | |
NTC leaders had expressed a preference for a secret burial. | |
Bound by Fatwa | |
Officials have given few details of the ceremony. | |
They say it took place early on Tuesday. A few relatives and officials were in attendance and Islamic prayers were read. | |
The tussle over the body was between the Misratan military brigades who captured and killed Col Gaddafi on Thursday and the politicians - the National Transitional Council - who are now trying to take charge of the whole of this country. | |
The body of Col Gaddafi was the number-one war trophy after eight months of civil war. | |
The tussle over it was all part of a behind-the-scenes positioning for power in the new Libya that we'll probably see the aftershocks of reverberating out in the weeks and months to come. | |
Libya's Minister for Information Mahmoud Shammam said the NTC was following a fatwa, or religious ruling. | |
"It says that his body should not be buried in Muslim cemeteries and should not be buried in a known place to avoid any sedition," Mr Shammam said. | |
An NTC official had earlier told Reuters news agency that Col Gaddafi would be buried in a "simple" ceremony with "sheikhs attending" on Tuesday. | An NTC official had earlier told Reuters news agency that Col Gaddafi would be buried in a "simple" ceremony with "sheikhs attending" on Tuesday. |
"It will be an unknown location in the open desert," he said, adding that a burial was needed because decomposition of the body had reached the point where the "corpse cannot last any longer". | "It will be an unknown location in the open desert," he said, adding that a burial was needed because decomposition of the body had reached the point where the "corpse cannot last any longer". |
Gaddafi, Mutassim and former Defence Minister Abu Bakr Younis Jabr were killed on Thursday following the fall of Sirte, the last major pro-Gaddafi bastion. | |
Witnesses said the bodies had been removed late on Monday from the meat storage warehouse in Misrata where they had been on display. | |
Shrine fears | |
The BBC was told prayers were said over the bodies before they were driven away. | |
"Our job is finished," a security guard at the warehouse, Salem al Mohandes, told the Arabic television station al-Jazeera. "[Gaddafi] was transferred and the military council of Misrata took him away to an unknown location." | |
The BBC's Katya Adler in Tripoli says the question of how to dispose of Gaddafi's body has been a political minefield for the new Libyan leadership, and is the reason why it has taken four days for a decision to be taken. | |
Islamic tradition dictates a burial should happen within a day of the death. | Islamic tradition dictates a burial should happen within a day of the death. |
But the NTC leadership was concerned that any public grave could become a shrine for Gaddafi loyalists or a target of hatred for those who opposed his regime, our correspondent says. | But the NTC leadership was concerned that any public grave could become a shrine for Gaddafi loyalists or a target of hatred for those who opposed his regime, our correspondent says. |
In the end, she adds, the decomposition of the body meant the NTC had to act. | |
Questions have been raised over the former leader's death after video footage showed him alive at the time of capture. Officials said he had been killed subsequently in a crossfire. | |
A post-mortem examination carried out on the 69-year-old's body on Sunday showed he had received a bullet wound to the head, medical sources said. | |
Acting Libyan leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil said the NTC had formed a committee to investigate the circumstances surrounding his death. |