Rumors of the death began to flood in the early afternoon and cell phone pictures of his bloodied body being dragged by troops of the National Transitional Council (NTC) appeared to confirm them. Formal confirmation then came from Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril. “We confirm that all the evils, plus Qaddafi, have vanished from this beloved country,” he announced. 

Jibril is expected to announce that Libya is now fully liberated on Friday. France announced Thursday that as soon as that happens, NATO operations in Libya would be over. 

Jibril is also expected to announce his own resignation at the same time.  Two weeks ago, he said that he would resign as soon as the liberation of Libya was declared.

The NTC had already said that Libya’s liberation would be announced as soon as Sirte fell. After the fall of Tripoli on Aug. 21, Qaddafi’s last bastion has been under siege by NTC forces. It has been an erratic siege, with NTC forces finding it difficult at times to hold onto gains they made in parts of the city. The news that it had finally been overrun was announced shortly before that of Qaddafi’s death. 

Qaddafi’s body was taken to Misrata, home of the brigade that captured Sirte. It was put on display there. 

Details of how he died are hazy. Mahmoud Shammam, the NTC’s media chief, said that he was killed by NTC fighters. Another official, Abdel Majid Mlegta, said that the former strongman was shot in the head following fighting. However, the NTC also said that he was initially captured alive having been wounded in both legs. There were also reports that a convoy of military vehicles in which he and a few key personnel attempted to flee the city came under fire from NATO jets. NATO has confirmed that its aircraft attacked a convoy near Sirte about 8:30 a.m., striking two vehicles.

Mletga suggested that Qaddafi was captured at that point but was killed in a shootout later when he tried to escape.

However, a member of the Misrata brigade, Adel Busamir, told reporters that that Qaddafi was killed after having been discovered in a compound for visiting foreign leaders in Sirte. 

He was reportedly hiding in a drainage pipe. “We found him there,” Busamir said. “We saw them beating him (Qaddafi) and someone shot him with a 9mm pistol ... then they took him away.”

Libyan television showed video of two drains, about a meter across, where it claimed the fighters from Misrata had cornered Qaddafi. Officials said some of Qaddafi’s entourage were killed or taken prisoner at the same time.

Later on Thursday, the Libyan information minister said Qaddafi’s son Mutassim had been killed after hiding with his father.

“Mutassim is dead. I can confirm it,” Mahmoud Shammam told Reuters.

Earlier reports had suggested that he had been captured alive but injured.

Seif Al-Islam, long seen as Qaddafi’s successor, is believed by the NTC to be still at large, possibly in southern Libya.

News of the death of the man who spent much of the country’s oil wealth promoting his own personality cult, was welcomed by foreign leaders once it had been confirmed.

Lebanon’s opposition leader Saad Hariri warned that “despotic regimes” and “tyrants” in the Middle East would face the same fate as Qaddafi.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki also welcomed the news, comparing it to that of Saddam Hussein, saying they both were “proof of the potential of the people.”

The current holder of the EU’s rotating presidency, Poland, had a similar message. Qaddafi’s fate “should be a warning to other dictators in the region and in the world,” the Polish Foreign Ministry said.

US President Barack Obama said the United States would be a partner to new Libya and that the NATO mission would “soon come to an end.”

“This marks the end of a long and painful chapter for the people of Libya who now have the opportunity to determine their own destiny in a new and democratic Libya,” he told reporters in the White House.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, one of the first international supporters of the uprising against Qaddafi, said his death was “a major step forward in the battle fought for more than eight months by the Libyan people to liberate themselves from the dictatorial and violent regime imposed on them for more than 40 years.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron said: “People in Libya today have an even greater chance after this news of building themselves a strong and democratic future.”

“I think today is a day to remember all of Col. Qaddafi’s victims” including those who died in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, he said in a statement outside his office.

Germany said it hoped Libya would now enter a “new, peaceful and democratic chapter”, a sentiment echoed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who said that Qaddafi’s death ushered in a “historic transition” for Libya.

South Africa, which only recently dropped support for Qaddafi said that it hoped that the death would lead to a cessation of hostilities and the restoration of peace.

There has been no comment from Cuba, Venezuela or Zimbabwe which remained Qaddafi’s allies to the bitter end.