Qualla: Killing of Muammar Gaddafi

Killing of Muammar Gaddafi: Introduction

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

At 8:30 on the morning of 20 October 2011, a convoy of 75 vehicles tried to slip out of Sirte along the coastal road. Inside one of those vehicles sat Muammar Gaddafi, the man who had ruled Libya for 42 years, now fleeing a city that had been his tribal heartland and his final refuge. NATO intercepted a satellite phone call from within the convoy. Within minutes, a Royal Air Force Tornado spotted the vehicles, and a Predator drone controlled from a base near Las Vegas began firing. The convoy shattered. What followed in the hours after would become one of the most controversial moments of the Arab Spring.

Killing of Muammar Gaddafi: The Fugitive's Last Stand

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Gaddafi had been hiding in Sirte for months. After the fall of Tripoli to opposition forces in August 2011, he had fled the capital in a small convoy on the same day, while his son Mutassim followed separately. While Libya's prime minister told the press that Gaddafi was believed...

Killing of Muammar Gaddafi: Pulled from the Pipe

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

After the NATO strikes tore the convoy apart, Gaddafi's son Mutassim persuaded his father to move. The group belly-crawled to a sand berm and then through two drainage pipes, setting up a defensive position, according to a United Nations report published in March 2012. A separate...

Killing of Muammar Gaddafi: The Body in the Freezer

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The interim Libyan authorities decided to keep Gaddafi's body on public display. NTC oil minister Ali Tarhouni explained it simply: to make sure everybody knew he was dead. The body was placed in an industrial freezer in Misrata, and for four days Libyans traveled hundreds of kil...

Killing of Muammar Gaddafi: Reverberations Across the World

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The killing divided global opinion sharply. Western leaders largely welcomed the news as a turning point for Libya. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a candid moment caught on camera, quipped, "We came. We saw. He died" -- a variant of Caesar's famous phrase that captured...

Killing of Muammar Gaddafi: A Cycle Unbroken

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Omran Shaban, the young Misrata fighter who pulled Gaddafi from the drainage pipe and posed with his golden pistol, became briefly famous. Within a year, he was captured by pro-Gaddafi loyalists in Bani Walid, paralyzed, and severely tortured. Libya's interim president secured hi...