Colonel Gaddafi, ex Libyan president, has been killed by NTC forces

Muammar Gaddafi was killed on Thursday as Libya's new leaders declared they had overrun the last bastion of his long rule, sparking wild celebrations that eight months of war may finally be over. It was announced by several officials of the National Transitional Council (NTC) and backed up by a photograph of a bloodied face ringed by familiar, Gaddafi-style curly hair.

Young Gaddafi

"He was killed in an attack by the fighters. There is footage of that," the NTC's information minister, Mahmoud Shammam, told Reuters. BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse in Sirte: "I have spoken to the man who says that he captured him... he was brandishing a golden pistol"

Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam said fighters had told him they had seen Col Gaddafi's body, and other officials also said he was dead. The claims have not yet been independently verified, and other reports said he was captured alive. The colonel was toppled in August after 42 years in power.

Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi ( June 7, 1942 � October 20, 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the autocratic ruler of Libya, from 1969 when he seized power in a military coup, until 2011 when his government was overthrown by a NATO-backed rebel force in a civil war.

Injured Gaddafi

Gaddafi was alive when he was captured: