"WHAAAT???"
TRIPOLI, Libya — Libyan fighters said on Thursday that they had routed the last remaining forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafifrom the coastal town of Surt, ending weeks of fierce fighting that had prevented Libya’s interim rulers from declaring the country liberated and starting the transition to an elected government.
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A military spokesman for the interim government, Abdel Rahman Busin, said “Surt is fully liberated.”
Libya’s interim leaders had said they believed that some Qaddafi family members — possibly including Colonel Qaddafi and several of his sons — were hiding in Surt or in Bani Walid, another loyalist bastion that the anti-Qaddafi forces captured several days ago.
Al Jazeera, citing Libyan television, said that the Libyan leader had been captured as fighters seized Surt on Thursday. But previous reports of the capture of high-level Qaddafi officials have proven false, and there was no confirmation from the interim government. Reuters reported that Colonel Qaddafi had been killed. That report, too, was not confirmed by officials.
As rumor of his capture spread in the capital, Tripoli, car horns blared as many celebrated in the streets.
Victoria Nuland, the State Department spokeswoman, traveling with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Afghanistan, said the department was aware of the reports “on the capture or killing of Muammar Qaddafi” but could not confirm them “at this time.”
Gunfire could still be heard in Surt on Thursday, as former rebel fighters searched houses and chased fleeing loyalist fighters. The anti-Qaddafi fighters killed at least 20 loyalist soldiers trying to escape down the coastal highway, and captured at least 16, The A.P. reported.
There was no immediate comment from Mustapha Abdul Jalil, the interim government’s top official. If confirmed, the capture or killing of Colonel Qaddafi — along with the fall of Surt — would allow Mr. Abdul Jalil to declare the country liberated and in control of its borders, and to start a process that would lead to a general election for a national council within eight months.
The battle for Surt was supposed to have been a postscript to the Libyan conflict, but for weeks soldiers loyal to Colonel Qaddafi, Libya’s deposed leader, fiercely defended the city, first weathering NATO airstrikes and then repeated assaults by anti-Qaddafi fighters. Former rebel leaders were caught off guard by the depth of the divisions in western Libya, where the colonel’s policy of playing favorites and stoking rivalries has resulted in a series of violent confrontations.
Surt emerged as the stage for one of the war’s bloodiest fights, killing and injuring scores on both sides, decimating the city and leading to fears that the weak transitional leaders would not be able to unify the country.
The battle turned nearly two weeks ago, after a prolonged stalemate, when the anti-Qaddafi fighters laid siege to an enormous convention center that the pro-Qaddafi troops had used as a base.
The interim leaders had claimed that the ongoing fighting had prevented them from focusing on other pressing concerns, including the proliferation of armed militias that answered to no central authority.
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