Previously Unseen Footage Shows Colonel Gaddafi Begging For His Life As He Is Led Away To Be Executed

Previously unseen footage documenting the final moments of the life of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has surfaced. The footage shows the final moments of the Libyan dictator’s life after he was captured by rebel fighters in October 2011.

BBC News reports that the disturbing footage was captured on mobile phone by a rebel fighter Ayman Almani on October 20, 2011. Ayman was reportedly one of a group of rebel fighters who found and dragged the wounded Libyan leader from inside a concrete sewer, where he had sought refuge with a group of his personal bodyguards after an attempt to break out of Sirte was foiled.

Sirte, Gaddafi’s hometown, was the center of final resistance by Gaddafi loyalists in the eight-month civil war that ended the dictator’s regime. Gaddafi and his family had escaped from Tripoli to Sirte after the fall of the Libyan capital city to forces of the National Transition Council (NTC) in August 2011.

But after Sirte came under attack from rebel forces of the National Transition Council (NTC) backed by RAF fighters, Gaddafi and a group of his loyalists attempted to escape on the morning of October 20, 2011, in a convoy of about 75 to 100 vehicles.

The convoy was detected by RAF reconnaissance aircraft, and it came under attack by NATO aircraft that included a U.S. Predator drone and French air force jets.

Gaddafi and a detachment of his bodyguards, including one of his sons, escaped after several vehicles in the convoy were destroyed by fire from NATO aircraft. The Libyan leader and his men hid in a concrete drainage pipe, where they came under attack by NTC troops shelling the area.

Gaddafi was wounded during a brief exchange of fire with NTC troops who approached the drainage pipe. Gaddafi and his men were finally captured by NTC troops who located him inside the sewer and arrested him.

The footage shows Gaddafi after he was arrested. He is shown bloodied, dazed, and terrified, pleading for his life as he is mobbed by frenzied gunmen who parade him on a truck. A man holds a gun to his head as he pleads for his life with screaming rebel fighters. He was executed moments later.

BBC News reporter Gabriel Gatehouse recently tracked down Ayman Almani, the rebel fighter who captured the footage, to the Libyan city of Misrata. And more than four years after Gaddafi’s death, Ayman agreed to show the reporter the previously unseen footage of the brutal final moments.

Ayman told the BBC reporter, “He [Gaddafi] deserved it. Islam teaches us not to mistreat a prisoner, not to bear a grudge. But the people got carried away in the stampede and no-one could stop them.”

The footage is the latest of several similar cell phone videos released since the death of Gaddafi that document his capture and summary execution by rebel fighters. The latest video captures the last moments of the dictator’s life from a different angle. It shows him making futile efforts to obtain a reprieve from his captors.

Previous footage also showed him pleading for his life as he was being led off to be executed. Particularly gruesome footage showed fighters torturing him by repeatedly plunging a bayonet into his anus.

Gaddafi was reportedly shot in the head with his personal “golden gun.”

Footage taken after his execution shows the golden gun held up in the air by wildly jubilating rebel fighters. The gun came into the possession of a teenage Libyan fighter Mohammed al-Bibi, believed to be the executioner.

But al-Bibi has denied that he shot Gaddafi, saying he picked up the gun from the floor during the chaotic jubilation that followed Gaddafi’s execution. He said people assumed that he fired the shot that killed Gaddafi when they saw him holding the gun.

[Photo By Ben Curtis/AP]