BENGHAZI, Libya — Moammar Khadafy was buried at dawn Tuesday in a secret location in the desert along with his son Mutassim and an aide, a source in Libya’s Transitional National Council (TNC) said.
The former dictator received a full Muslim funeral, and some of his relatives were present, according to Haitham al Faqueh, a member of the Misratah military council.
“The burial was done in a proper manner,” he told Sky News. “The bodies were washed, and they were prayed over in the Islamic way. There were some of Khadafy’s relatives present, along with other officials.”
Those who attended the burial were sworn to secrecy, as TNC officials do not want Moammar Khadafy’s grave to become a shrine or a focal point for any future insurgency, according to Sky News.
News of his burial comes as interim oil and finance minister Ali Tarhuni asked NATO to stay “at least one more month,” AFP reported. NATO had announced plans to end its seven-month mission in Libya on Oct. 31.
The wrangle over the former dictator’s body had sparked fears over the country’s stability.
Officials put the corpse on show in a cold storage room in Misratah while they argued over what to do with it — until its decay forced them to end the display Monday.
Thousands of Libyans lined up to see the body, which was on show alongside the bodies of Mutassim Khadafy and former defense minister Abubakr Yunes.
There had been growing unease among the TNC’s Western supporters over the grim spectacle, which saw Moammar Khadafy’s body left on a bloodied mattress as decomposition set in.
Soldiers handed out face masks to adults and children as they waited for a glimpse of the body, to help ward off the stench of death and risk of disease.
The fallen despot was killed Thursday after TNC fighters hauled him out of a drainpipe where he was hiding on the outskirts of his hometown of Sirte.
Libya’s interim prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, said that Moammar Khadafy was killed in “crossfire from both sides,” though there were unconfirmed reports that he was executed with a shot to the head.
TNC officials searching for Khadafy’s son and longtime heir apparent, Saif al Islam, said that they listened to satellite phone conversations and believed he was trying to flee Libya, Sky News reported.
“He’s on the triangle of Niger and Algeria,” a TNC official said. “He’s south of Ghat, the Ghat area. He was given a false Libyan passport from the area of Murzuq. The region is very, very difficult to monitor and encircle. The region is a desert region and it has … many, many exit routes.”
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