Colonel Gaddafi spent his final days “sad and angry” and on the run as the rebels closed in on his hometown of Sirte and his 42 year dictatorship fell apart
Gaddafi, his son Mutassim and an entourage of 20 or so loyalists took shelter in abandoned homes with no electricity or contact with the outside world, Mansour Dao said.
Dao, a Gaddafi loyalist who is now in jail admitted that the deposed despot no longer wielded any real power during his final days.
“He was not leading the battle,” Dao said of Gaddafi. “His sons did that. He did not plan anything or think about any plan.”
Dao was with Gaddafi when the car they were travelling in as they fled Sirte was hit by a Nato airstrike
Dao was wounded and captured, while Gaddafi fled on foot and died later in rebel captivity.
He said Gaddafi fled to Sirte from Tripoli just before the revolutionary forces took the city in August.
Dao who has worked for Gaddafi since the 80s claims Gaddafi’s aides repeatedly urged him to step down and escape the country, but he refused, saying he wanted to die on Libyan soil.
“I feel sorry for him because he underestimated the situation,” Dao said. “He could have left and gotten out of the country and lived a happy life.”
According to Dao Gaddafi and his entourage moved hideouts about every four days, as the city was pounded by Nato airstrikes.
“We were scared of the airstrikes and shelling,” He said food was scarce in Sirte in the final days and that loyalist soldiers led by Muatassim dwindled from 350 men to 150 in the final days.
Dao said Gaddafi remained defiant until the end. “He was stressed, he was really angry, he was mad sometimes,” Dao said. “Mostly, he was just sad and angry.”
“He believed the Libyan people still loved him, even after we told him that Tripoli had been occupied.”
Gadaffii and his son Mutassim were buried in a secret location in the desert today. Before then Gadaffi’s body had been on public display in Misrata.
The transitional government have bowed to international pressure and launched an investigation into the circumstances of Gaddafi’s death.