The Philippine Online Chronicles

Former Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi was reportedly captured and killed in his hometown Sirte, Thursday morning, according to Libya's interim leaders.

Military official Abdul Hakim Belhaj of Libya's National Transition Council (NTC) has confirmed that Gaddafi has died. He said fighters said they saw the Gaddafi's body. A graphic image caught on mobile phone, showed a heavily bloodied man resembling the former dictator.

News of Gadaffi's death came out shortly after rebel forces captured Sirte following after weeks of bloody siege.

"He's captured. He's wounded in both legs ... He's been taken away by ambulance," senior NTC official Abdel Majid Mlegta told Al-Jazeera. "He was also hit in his head... "There was a lot of firing against his group and he died," Reuters reported.

The chief of Gaddafi's armed forces, Abu Bakr Younus Jabr was also reportely killed. "Our people in Sirte saw the body," according to information minister Mahmoud Shammam. "Revolutionaries say Gadhafi was in a convoy and that they attacked the convoy," said Shammam.

The NATO and the U.S. State Department has not yet confirmed the news.

Meanwhile, Libyans gathered in the streets of Tripoli and Benghazi and started celebrating. “Celebratory gunfire and cries of "Allahu Akbar" or "God is Great" rang out across Tripoli as the reports spread. Cars honked their horns and people hugged each other,” Associated Press posted. In Sirte, the ecstatic former rebels celebrated the city's fall by firing endless rounds into the sky, pumping their guns, knives and even a meat cleaver in the air and singing the national anthem.

According to Telegraph.co.uk, revolutionary forces were chanting: "We did it! We did it!" "We finished Kadhafi and his people," shouts fighter Ali Urfulli. "We have taken revenge. Let him go to hell."

Gaddafi who ruled Libya for 42 years, is the most wanted man in the world. He was charged by the International Criminal Court over killing of civilians. His government was toppled by rebel forces on August 23.

The Libyan uprising started in February after the arrest of human rights activist Fethi Tarbel triggered riots in Benghazi. Read the timeline here.

According to U.S. diplomatic cables released by whistle-blower site Wikileaks, Gaddafi was described as a "mercurial and eccentric figure who suffers from severe phobias, enjoys flamenco dancing and horse racing, acts on whims and irritates friends and enemies alike."