Former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was killed Thursday in an assault by provisional government forces on his hometown of Sirte, sparking nationwide celebrations.
Gadhafi was 69 years old. The autocratic leader ruled Libya for more than four decades until a rebellion began in the country's east in February and advanced across the country before ousting him from the capital, Tripoli, in August.
The prime minister of Libya's National Transitional Council, Mahmoud Jibril, told a Tripoli news conference that now is the time for all Libyans to build a new, united Libya.
Diplomats say NATO members will meet Friday in Brussels to discuss ending their six-month Libyan air campaign, which began as a move to protect Libyan civilians from attacks by Gadhafi loyalists.
French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said a French warplane participating in the NATO mission attacked a Gadhafi convoy Thursday, as the former leader and his remaining loyalists tried to escape from Sirte, their final stronghold. U.S. defense officials said a U.S. Predator drone also struck the convoy.
NTC ground forces pursuing the convoy engaged in a gun battle with Gadhafi's loyalists and later found him hiding in a sewage pipe on the city's outskirts. Video from the scene broadcast worldwide showed NTC soldiers carrying a wounded and bleeding Gadhafi shortly before he was killed. It is not clear who shot him.
Libyan authorities later took Gadhafi's body to the western city of Misrata.
Jubilant crowds filled the streets of Tripoli, Misrata, Benghazi and other Libyan towns and cities to celebrate Gadhafi's demise and the fall of Sirte. Many people waved Libya's new national flag and fired guns into the air.
Libya's information minister said one of Gadhafi's sons, Mutassim, also was killed in Sirte on Thursday. Prime Minister Jibril said NTC fighters pursued another Gadhafi son, Seif al-Islam, in a village near Sirte.
Provisional government forces besieged Sirte for weeks, but had met fierce resistance from the heavily armed Gadhafi loyalists.
Jibril said the NTC soon will formally announce that Libya has been completely liberated from Gadhafi's rule.
