Moammar Gadhafi Is Dead, Libya's Prime Minister Says

Salah Malkawi/ Getty Images(TRIPOLI, Libya) -- Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi has been killed, Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril confirmed Thursday.

The flamboyant tyrant who terrorized his country and much of the world during his 42 years of despotic rule was reportedly cornered by insurgents in the town of Sirte, where Gadhafi was born and which was a stronghold of his supporters.

President Obama will make remarks this afternoon confirming and discussing Gadhafi's death.

National Transition Council leaders said Gadhafi's son, Motassim, was also killed, though another son, Saif Al-Islam, fled Sirte in a convoy. Three of Gadhafi's children are in Algeria, and NTC leaders say they will ask the neighboring country to send them back.

"We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Moammar Gadhafi has been killed," Jibril said at a news conference in Tripoli.

He added that the rebel government will wait until later Thursday or Friday to officially declare what it calls a state of liberation.

The National Transition Council earlier Thursday said that its fighters found and shot Gadhafi in Sirte, which finally fell to the rebels after weeks of tough fighting. Rebels now control the entire country.

An NTC fighter who says he shot Gadhafi told reporters the eccentric leader was carrying a golden pistol and pleaded to him not to shoot. Footage of the dictator apparently badly wounded, being pulled from a pickup truck by a throng of cheering men -- and later dead sometime later -- quickly made its way to Al Jazeera and other networks and around the world.

Word of Gadhafi's death triggered celebrations in the streets of Tripoli with insurgent fighters waving their weapons and dancing jubilantly.

The White House and NATO said they were unable to confirm reports of his death.  

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US Seeks UN Resolution to Release $1.5 Billion to Libyan Rebels

FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty ImagesUPDATE: Diplomatic sources tell ABC News a vote on this resolution will take place Thursday afternoon unless South Africa lifts its hold in the sanctions committee.

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(NEW YORK) -- A United Nations Security Council diplomat tells ABC News that the United States plans to introduce a resolution Wednesday that would authorize the transfer of roughly $1.5 billion of Moammar Gadhafi’s frozen assets to the rebels. The resolution is expected to pass, with a vote likely Thursday or Friday.

The U.S. and other countries have sought and received assurances from the Transitional National Council that the money will be used for humanitarian and other pressing needs like food, water and medicine -- not weapons.

The U.S. and other countries had led an effort to get the sanctions committee -- which enforces U.N. sanctions passed on Libya earlier this year -- to allow the money transfer, but one country stood in the way. The sanctions committee operates on a consensus basis, but South Africa said it would not consider authorizing the transfer until the African Union meeting concludes on Friday -- and even then it was not a guarantee they would vote ‘yes.’ The action on Wednesday is designed to force South Africa’s hand and pass the resolution anyway.

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Libya's New Leaders Have Their Work Cut Out for Them

Dan Kitwood/Getty Images(TRIPOLI, Libya) -- Post-Gadhafi Libya is most likely going to experience some growing pains.

However, analysts familiar with Libya and the region are expressing optimism that once the rebels can claim total victory, the transition from dictatorship to democracy could go more smoothly there than in Egypt and Tunisia, which overthrew their leaders earlier this year.

There are many obstacles to overcome, not the least of which are Libya's 140 tribes throughout the eastern and western parts of the country.  Getting them to unify will be a huge challenge for the Transitional National Council, the group that conducted the successful guerilla campaign against Gadhafi loyalists, with a major assist from NATO.

Another potential danger to unification are pockets of insurgents left behind who might conduct a low-level war against the new government, similar to what's been happening in Iraq for the past eight years.

Still, Libya could avoid the same trap as Iraq because the revolution happened without any foreign boots on the ground, and so their revolution would be viewed as more legitimate by the international community.

Another advantage is that the TNC has gained experience governing over the past six months while engaged in a vicious fight with government forces.  Those within the group include former Libyan Justice Minister Mustafa Abdul Jalil, who is the TNC chairman, and Finance Minister Ali Tarhouni, a former professor at the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington in Seattle.

The new government will also control Libya's rich oil supply, which immediately gives it better financial footing than the more heavily populated Egypt and Tunisia.

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State Dept. Calls for Transitional National Council to Unify in Libya

US State Department(WASHINGTON) -- The State Department Friday urged the Transitional National Council (TNC), the interim government in Libya created by revolutionaries, to come together in the wake of the killing of one of the rebels’ top military commanders.

"This underscores some of the challenges that the Transitional National Council faces," State Department deputy spokes Mark Toner told reporters Friday.

"They've had to overcome many challenges in their struggle. And I think what's important is that they work to -- both diligently and transparently, to ensure the unity of the Libyan opposition. And, you know, it's important to keep in mind that the objective here is to -- is to get Gadhafi to step aside and allow the Transitional National Council to lead this democratic transition," he added.

"The details surrounding the killing of Transitional National Council's Chief of Staff Younes as well as two other officers are still unclear. We've -- our envoy in Benghazi and his team are talking to the Transitional National Council, trying to get a better picture of what exactly happened," Toner said.

This comes at a time when NATO itself has moved the goalposts with regard to the end game in Libya. Both the United Kingdom and France have endorsed a plan whereby Gadhafi could remain in the country provided he steps down from power. The United States has maintained that such decisions depend on Libyan people.

That philosophy was rejected by a TNC leader this week, but according to some reports top U.S. officials floated this plan with Gadhafi’s representatives during a meeting on July 16 in Tunisia. Initial reports indicated that they only told them that Gadhafi had to leave power.

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