SIRTE, Libya — The capture of Col. Muammar Gaddafi, found cowering in a stormwater drain, marked a sudden and surprising end to the Libyan revolution on Thursday.
With injuries to the leg, torso and head, the former dictator was found alone in the drain pipe, surrounded by the bodies of his guards who had been shot as they fled Sirte from the west.
Live Blog: Updates on death of Muammar Gaddafi
In video footage captured on the mobile phone of 21-year-old Ali Algadi, Gaddafi is seen being dragged from his hiding place, bloodied and dazed. Those present shout repeatedly, “Don’t’ kill him! Don’t kill him! We need him alive.” The former dictator, however, was later confirmed to be dead.
“I can’t tell you how good it feels,” said Algadi as he sat near the drainage pipe now decorated with anti-Gaddafi slogans. “When we came here we thought it was just snipers, that’s it. Then one of the guys started yelling Muammar Gaddafi! Muammar Gaddafi! He had him by the leg and was dragging him from the hole. He was hiding like a rat.”
One of the men dragging him was Ibrahim Abuziad.
“When we came to arrest him he was saying, ‘What do you want with me? What is going on? What happened with you?’” Abuziad said at the scene shortly after the capture. “He was like crazy. He was waving this [white hessian sack] above his head.”
In the shaky footage, the former dictator is kicked and hit. Dirt is thrown into his face as a crowd of rebel fighters drags him to a waiting vehicle.
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