Killing of Muammar Gaddafi

Killing of Muammar Gaddafi
Part of the First Libyan Civil War
Muammar al-Gaddafi at the AU summit, 2009
LocationSirte, Libya
Date20 October 2011 (2011-10-20)
TargetMuammar Gaddafi
Attack type
War crime, assassination, extrajudicial execution, summary execution, torture killing
Perpetrators National Transitional Council

NATO command

Muammar Gaddafi, the former leader of Libya, was killed by the National Transitional Council (NTC) on 20 October 2011 after the Battle of Sirte. Gaddafi was captured by NTC forces and summarily executed shortly afterwards.

The NTC initially claimed Gaddafi succumbed to injuries sustained in a firefight when loyalist forces attempted to free him, although a video of his last moments shows rebel fighters dragging Gaddafi out of a drainage pipe, beating him and one of them sodomizing him with a bayonet before he was shot several times.

The killing of Gaddafi was criticized as a violation of international law. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called for an independent autopsy and an investigation into how Gaddafi died.