Gaddafi buried in secret, NATO asked to stay on

Misrata, Oct 26: Muammar Gaddafi's body has been buried in secret after being displayed in public, in an ignominious end for Libya's longtime ruler, as the new regime today asked NATO to extend its mission.

The last top figures of his ousted regime, Gaddafi's son Seif al-Islam and former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, meanwhile, were poised to cross the border into Niger, a Tuareg official said.

Seif al-Islam was "near the Niger border, he hasn't entered Niger yet but he's close," a local official from the northern Niger Agadez region told AFP on condition of anonymity.

A Misrata military council member, also without being named, said that Gaddafi was buried yesterday night in a religious ceremony, along with another of his sons, Mutassim, and former defence minister Abu Bakr Yunis Jaber.

The bodies had been put on display in a market freezer on the outskirts of Misrata, a city 215 kilometres east of Tripoli, with thousands of Libyans queuing up since Friday to view and photograph them.

In Benghazi, a senior official of the National Transitional Council said the burial "took some time" to organise due to a "disconnect between the local (Misrata) council and the NTC."

According to guards at the entrance to the market, a convoy of four or five military vehicles took the bodies away to an unknown location, being kept secret to avoid the site turning into a rallying point for Gaddafi supporters.

AFP