President Obama Addresses Nation: ‘The Gaddafi Regime Has Come to an End’

President says that the path to democracy will be “a long and winding road”

President Barack Obama publicly acknowledged Thursday that Moammar Gaddafi has been killed.

In a national address from the Rose Garden, however, the president stopped short of saying that the United States had independently confirmed that the dictator was dead; attributing reports to Libyan rebel forces.

“The Gaddafi regime has come to an end,” Obama said, telling the Libyan people, “you have won your revolution.”

Also read: Gaddafi Corpse Video Airs; New Video Seems to Show Him Captured Alive (Warning: Graphic)

Obama added that the dictator's death "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.”

Yet the president made it clear that Libya still has many challenges ahead of it, calling for the speedy formation of a new government and asking the rebels to work with the international community to secure dangerous materials.

"We are under no illusions: Libya will travel a long and winding road to full democracy," Obama said. 

Obama did not provide any additional information about how the Libyan dictator had been captured and killed. Libya's interim leaders told Reuters that Gaddafi died of wounds suffered on Thursday as rebels overran his hometown of Sirte.

Though the speech was light on specifics, it was heavy on praise. The president hailed the work of U.S. troops and their allies for supporting the uprising. He also praised the international community’s refusal to stand by while the dictator turned guns on his own people.

He said the news of Gaddafi’s killing comes as a time when “…we are seeing the strength of American leadership across the world.”

The president linked the death of Gaddafi to a series of recent foreign policy successes such as the killing of Osama Bin Laden.

He also mentioned that the killing comes as U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan is winding down, and noted that the victory in Libya had come without putting any U.S. service members on the ground. 

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