US President Obama declares triumph of Libyan revolution with Qadhafi’s death

Addressing the Libyan people and their successful revolt that started in March this year, at the Rose Garden in the White House on Thursday, 20 October, The U.S. president Barack Obama said “you have won your revolution”, declaring the end of a 42-year rule of a tyrant announcing Libyan strongman Qadhafi’s death at the hands of the rebels.

Mr. Obama hailed the success of the NATO effort that was intended to protect civilians and eventually helped force Qadhafi from power.

"One of the world's longest-serving dictators is no more," Obama said before the White House-accredited media crew.

The dark shadow of tyranny has been lifted," Obama said from the White House Rose Garden. "And with this enormous promise, the Libyan people now have a great responsibility."

"Without putting a single U.S. service member on the ground, we achieved our objectives and our NATO mission will soon come to an end," he said.

The president was unsparing in his description of Qadhafi. He said the Libyan "ruled the people with an iron fist, basic human rights were denied, innocent civilians were detained, beaten and killed. Terror was used as a political weapon."
Yet he cautioned of difficult days ahead in Libya, where enormous challenges of governance and stability remain.

"But the United States, together with the international community, is committed to the Libyan people," he said. "Today's events prove once more that the rule of an iron fist inevitably comes to an end."

Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi is dead, Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril of the provisional Libyan regime has confirmed."We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Muammar Qaddafi has been killed," Jibril told a news conference in the capital Tripoli. Qaddafi died of wounds suffered during his capture near his hometown of Sirte on Thursday, according to a spokesman for Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC)."Qaddafi is dead. He is absolutely dead ... he was shot in both legs and in the head. The body will be arriving in Misrata soon," media spokesman Abdullah Berrassali told Sky News.

A U.S. Predator drone, along with a French fighter jet, fired on the convoy said to be carrying Muammar Qaddafi in the moments before his death, a U.S. defense official told Fox News on Thursday.

The official said the drone and French jet fired on a "large convoy" leaving Qaddafi's hometown of Sirte. A French defense official earlier said about 80 vehicles were in the convoy -- the official said the strike did not destroy the convoy but that fighters on the ground afterward intercepted the vehicle carrying Qaddafi.

Qaddafi died of wounds suffered during his capture near Sirte, according to a spokesman for the National Transitional Council in Libya.

- Asian Tribune -