Gruesome cellphone footage bore witness to the bloody demise of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi on Thursday, apparently at the hands of his own people.
U.S. news telecasts aired video of what was believed to be the corpse of Gaddafi after Libya's transitional government said the former despot was dead.
Another video appeared to show him being captured before his death, alive but wounded, and still another showed him with gunshot wounds to the head.
The Washington Post and other outlets posted a video Gaddafi being dragged off by rebels -- suggesting he was killed sometime after they took him into custody (Warning: Graphic):
The video emerged after ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News, CNN and MSNBC aired Al Jazeera video of what appeared to be Gaddafi's body.
In the extremely graphic video that showed Gaddafi wounded but alive, the leader is seen splayed on the hood of a truck. He stumbles about and is seen, horrifyingly, in a mob with blood pouring down his head. According to U.S. news reports, a voice can be heard saying, "We want him alive!"
That apparently did not happen. An even more graphic video posted on YouTube shows Gaddafi with a gunshot wound to the head, leading some to speculate that the leader had been executed.
Like the other Arab revolutions that have shaken the Middle East this year, the tools of modern communication accompanied and bore witness to historic events on Thursday.
Fox News' Bill Hemmer narrated the corpse video by saying it "appears to be beyond a shadow of a doubt" footage of the slain Gaddafi. The Guardian posted an AFP still of the images, which is below. All the videos appear to have been taken with cell phones.
See also: Images of Gaddafi Dead (Warning: Graphic)
Gaddafi appears to be the person in both the capture and corpse videos, and the man or men in both videos seem to be wearing the same clothes.
But U.S. officials would not confirm the death. In an address to the nation, President Obama was careful to say that Libyan forces said he was dead, without saying so himself.
Also read: President Obama Addresses Nation: 'The Gaddafi Regime Has Come to an End'
Libya's interim leaders told Reuters that Gaddafi died of wounds suffered on Thursday as rebels overran his hometown of Sirte.
"There was a lot of firing against his group and he died," National Transitional Council official Abdel Majid Mlegta told Reuters. He said Gaddafi, 69, was hit in the head.
Gaddafi, whose tyrannical rule has teetered since an uprising began in February of this year, has been on the run from rebel and NATO forces. He was last heard on August 15, when he called on his followers to liberate Libya from rebels and NATO. "Get ready for the fight," he said.
