LIBYA: Tripoli erupts in rapturous celebration as news of deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi's death reaches the Libyan capital

Record ID: 580434

  • Title: LIBYA: Tripoli erupts in rapturous celebration as news of deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi's death reaches the Libyan capital
  • Date: 21st October 2011
  • Summary: PEOPLE JUMPING UP AND DOWN AND SINGING LIBYAN INDEPENDENCE FLAGS MAN BANGING IN DRUM IN CROWD WOMAN WAVING FLAG CROWD CLAPPING AND SINGING
  • Embargoed: 5th November 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Libya, Libya
  • Country: Libya
  • Topics: Conflict
  • Reuters ID: LVADY1YC70ALIXNC2QJFRRI7FJQ8
  • Story Text: Hundreds of Libyans flocked to Martyr's Square in Tripoli on Thursday (October 20) to celebrate the death of the man who ruled them with an iron fist for 42 years.
    Muammar Gaddafi died on Thursday, Libya's new leaders said, killed by fighters who overran his hometown and final bastion, Sirte.
    His bloodied body was stripped and displayed around the world on cellphone video.
    Senior officials in the interim government, which ended his 42-year rule two months ago but had laboured to subdue thousands of diehard loyalists, said his death opened the way for a declaration of "liberation" after eight months of war.
    In the square, known as Green Square under Gaddafi, Libyans danced, sung and waved green, black and red Libyan independence flags.
    Amidst scenes of jubilation one woman told Reuters she was lost for words to describe her happiness, but said she hoped the Syrian president would meet a similar fate as Gaddafi.
    "We are happy, so happy in a way that we cannot even describe. Thank God and now it is Bashir's turn. God willing they will capture him and hang him and kill him. Oh God please," said the woman.
    Another woman said living her whole life under Gaddafi's rule had taken a heavy toll on her physical condition.
    "Under this tyrant I have aged while I am still young. Because of the life that I have lived and the suffering that I have endured. Thank God and God rest the souls of the martyrs in in peace. My condolences and thank God we are victorious," said the woman.
    After February's uprising in the long discontented east of the country around Benghazi -- inspired by the Arab Spring movements that overthrew the leaders of neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt -- the revolt against Gaddafi ground slowly across the country before a dramatic turn saw Tripoli fall in August.
    An announcement of final liberation was expected as the chairman of the NTC prepared to address the nation of six million. They now face the challenge of turning oil wealth once monopolised by Gaddafi and his clan into a democracy that can heal an array of tribal, ethnic and regional divisions he exploited.
    The two months since the fall of Tripoli have tested the nerves of the motley alliance of anti-Gaddafi forces and their Western and Arab backers, who had begun to question the ability of the NTC forces to root out diehard Gaddafi loyalists in Sirte and a couple of other towns.
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