Sirte Liberated, Gaddafi Dead

[By Arezki Daoud | US+508-981-6937] October 20, 2011 is a big day for the Libyan people. Nine months after the start of their revolution in the eastern city of Benghazi, the Libyan people have finally pacified the last bastion of the Gaddafi clan. Today, the city of Sirte where Muamar Gaddafi was born in 1942 has joinned the likes of Benghazi, Tripoli, Tobruk, and Misrata as free from the reign of terror of the Gaddafi clan and the revolutionary guards that protected that family. As for Muamar Gaddafi, officials say he has been killed in a gun battle.

The interim leadership, the National Transitional Council (CNT) is now theoretically in full control and has yet to confirm the fate of the Muamar Gaddafi himself. Sources say the “Brother Leader” was in custody, but news about his death during a final battle is Sirte has been spread by reporters on the ground. Meanwhile, rebel fighters have taken control of the center of Sirte, a ghost town that has been deserted by its population given the past weeks’ battles. 
 
With the fall of Sirte, the Gaddafi’s 42 years of reign of terror is over. And the climb ahead for the Libyans will be very steep starting with the institutional process that has yet to be chartered. In early August 2011, members of the CNT agreed that once freed the country will begin the countdown leading to the election, eight months later, of a Constituent Assembly, as is happening in neighboring Tunisia, announcing the appointment of general elections next year.