Muammar Gaddafi's final days played out here in his home town -- to where many of his die-hard loyalists had fled since the fall of Tripoli almost three months earlier.
The battle for Sirte was a long, intense and relatively close-range fight between the rebels and the remaining Gaddafi loyalists.
To this day, it's unclear how exactly Libya's longtime leader was apprehended just over a week later on October 20 2011.
One scenario, pieced together from various sources, suggests he tried to flee Sirte at dawn in a convoy of vehicles.
The story goes that Gaddafi's attempted escape was thwarted by a French air strike, and that some hours later National Transitional Council fighters found him hiding in a roadside drainage culvert.
Both NATO and French officials confirmed that warplanes had fired on a convoy in the area, but neither could confirm that Gaddafi had been a passenger.
This amateur video seems to corroborate the account -- showing him pleading against violent treatment by his captors.
Filmed by one of the fighters who surrounded the brutal autocrat, the footage was handed to a Reuters journalist covering the Libyan conflict.
What happened next is unclear.
But what we do know is that several hours later Gaddafi was dead -- with a bullet wound in the side of his head.
Some accounts suggest he was killed during a gun battle -- others say he was summarily executed.
After eight months of war, the capital Tripoli erupted in celebration.
While the world tried to piece together the events leading to the despot's death, it was far from the minds of these jubilant Libyans.
As cheering crowds filled Martyrs' Square, fireworks filled the night sky.
Be the first to comment