Libyan War | featured news

Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, who ruled Libya for 42 years, died Thursday as his last stronghold fell to the Libyan forces who drove him from power, officials of Libya’s transitional government said. There were conflicting initial reports of the specific circumstances of his death: some said he was killed in Surt, his hometown; others said he died while fleeing it.

Libya's National Transitional Council offered no official confirmation Thursday of the arrest of Moatassim Gadhafi, one of the deposed leader's sons believed to have been captured after a four-hour firefight in Sirte.

Libyan forces from Misrata said they wrested control of key buildings in Moammar Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte from his supporters after several days of intense street fighting that left scores dead and wounded.

They arrive by the carload day and night: Liberated Libyans coming to experience Tripoli's latest tourist attraction. It’s called Bab Al-Azizyia, but it is better known as Col. Moammar Gadhafi's compound. For most Libyans it was strictly off-limits during Gadhafi's 42-year reign of Libya – but not anymore.

Fighters for Libya's new leadership managed to take over the port in Sirte on Tuesday morning, a senior military commander in Tripoli said.

The head of Libya's National Transitional Council said an interim government will be announced in the coming week.

Diehard loyalists of Muammar Gaddafi unleashed barrages of rockets and mortars to beat back an assault by interim government forces on one of their last bastions in Libya's desert and also held off an advance into his home town.

The U.N. General Assembly voted Friday to give Libya's seat in the world body to the former rebels' National Transitional Council which led the rebellion that ousted Muammar Qaddafi. The vote means that a senior council official will be able to join world leaders and speak for Libya at next week's ministerial session of the General Assembly and also participate in meetings.

In addition to the assault on Sirte, opposition forces continue their fight in Bani Walid, another Kadafi stronghold. Fighting continued in Moammar Kadafi's hometown of Sirte on Friday, with 13 anti-Kadafi troops reported killed and at least 25 wounded.

Airlines are readying their return to Libya, ports largely shuttered during the fighting are receiving cargos and foreign oil companies that had fled the country's civil war are making tentative steps back....