There are unconfirmed reports Muammar Gaddafi was captured or killed as National Transitional Council troops overran the last pocket of resistance from loyalists in his hometown of Sirte, bringing their seven-month uprising to a triumphant conclusion.
The reports of Gaddafi's demise caused celebrations in towns across Libya as news spread that the autocrat who ruled the country with an iron fist for 42 years was finally in custody.
"He has been captured," NTC commander Mohamed Leith told AFP.
"He is badly wounded, but he is still breathing," Leith said, adding that he had seen Gaddafi himself and that he was wearing a khaki uniform and a turban.
There were also reports of Gaddafi's death in the battle for Sirte, with NTC military chief Abdul Hakim Belhaj telling Al Jazeera he had been killed.
Another NTC spokesman, Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, was also quoted as saying Gaddafi was dead.
At the time of publishing, neither the claim of Gaddafi's capture or death had been independently confirmed.
Ali Errishi, who served as Gaddafi's minister of immigration before defecting to the rebellion, earlier said he was "confident" the strongman was in custody.
"That is the end of a long ordeal of the Libyan people," he told the Al-Jazeera news channel.
NTC fighters who had fought in the bloody seven-month conflict that toppled the veteran despot at a cost of more than 25,000 lives, were jubilant at the news of his capture.
Pick-up trucks blaring out patriotic music criss-crossed the streets of Sirte, as fighters flashed V for victory signs and chanted Allahu Akbar (God is Great).
A lot of pickup trucks were playing the new national anthem and other revolutionary songs.
"I am happy we have got revenge for our people who suffered for all these years and for those who were killed in the revolution. Gaddafi is finished," said fighter Talar al-Kashmi.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, whose country took part in the NATO-led air operation in Libya confirmed that Gaddafi was in custody.
"My assistant has just told me that Gaddafi really has been captured,' Rutte said. "I am glad that he has been captured."
FALL OF SIRTE
Earlier today, NTC forces took full control over Sirte, ending the last major resistance by former regime supporters still holding out two months after the fall of the capital Tripoli.
Reporters at the scene watched as the final assault began around 8am local time on Thursday and ended about 90 minutes later.
Just before the assault, about five carloads of loyalists tried to flee the enclave down the coastal highway but were met by gunfire from the revolutionaries, who killed at least 20 of them.
"Our forces control the last neighbourhood in Sirte," Hassan Draoua, a member of Libya's interim National Transitional Council, told The Associated Press in Tripoli.
"The city has been liberated."
After the battle, revolutionaries began searching homes and buildings, looking for any Gaddafi fighters who might be hiding there.
At least 16 pro-Gaddafi fighters were captured, along with multiple cases of ammunition and trucks loaded with weapons.
Reporters saw revolutionaries beating captured Gaddafi men in the back of trucks and officers intervening to stop them.
Celebratory gunfire echoed through Sirte, which fell into the hands of revolutionaries almost two full months after they overrun Tripoli and many other parts of the oil-rich North African nation.
Despite the fall of Tripoli on August 21, Gaddafi loyalists mounted fierce resistance in several areas, including Sirte, preventing Libya's new leaders from declaring full victory in the eight-month civil war.
Earlier this week, revolutionary fighters gained control of one stronghold, Bani Walid, and by Tuesday they said they had squeezed Gaddafi's forces in Sirte into a residential area of about 700 square meters but were still coming under heavy fire from surrounding buildings.
Deputy defence minister Fawzi Abu Katif told the AP on Wednesday that authorities still believed Gaddafi's son Muatassim was among the ex-regime figures holed up in the diminishing area in Sirte. He was not seen on the ground after the final battle on Thursday.
In an illustration of how difficult and slow the fighting for Sirte was, it took the anti-Gaddafi fighters, who also faced disorganisation in their own ranks, two days to capture a single residential building.
