Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi RIP

AP reports:

Muammar Gaddafi, Libya’s dictator for 42 years until he was ousted in an uprising-turned-civil war, was killed Thursday (overnight NZ time) as revolutionary fighters overwhelmed his hometown of Sirte and captured the last major bastion of resistance two months after his regime fell.

Interim government officials said one of Gaddafi’s sons, his former national security adviser Muatassim, was also killed in Sirte and another, one-time heir apparent Seif al-Islam, was wounded and captured.

His death was probably inevitable, once he refused to flee into exile. It seems he was captured alive, and he should have been put on trial, but there are conflicting stories of whether he died from wounds or was executed.

Gaddafi did many evil things in his life. However it did seem for a while that he had become a more benign dictator when he stopped funding terrorism. However his response to peaceful protests showed that the leopard hasn’t changed his spots.

Families of victims killed in the Libyan bombing of a PanAm jet over Scotland in 1988 said justice was served with Gaddafi’s death.

PanAm flight 103 exploded as it flew to New York from London on December 21, 1988. All 259 people aboard the aircraft were killed and 11 others on the ground in Lockerbie also died from falling wreckage.

“I hope he’s in hell with Hitler,” said Kathy Tedeschi, whose first husband, Bill Daniels, was among the people killed in the bombing. “I just can’t stop crying, I am so thrilled.”

“I am sure (Gaddafi) was the one who pushed to have this done, the bombing,” said Tedeschi, 62, whose three children were aged 10, 7 and 2 when their father was killed.

Now that the Libyan Civil War is effectively over, the question is who is next?