Sirte, Libya- New regime troops captured Moamer Kadhafi on Thursday as they overran the last pocket of resistance from loyalists in his hometown Sirte, bringing their seven-month uprising to a triumphant conclusion. Celebrations erupted in towns across Libya as news spread that the autocrat who ruled the country with an iron fist for 42 years was finally in custody. "He has been captured," commander Mohamed Leith told AFP. "He is badly wounded, but he is still breathing," Leith said, adding that he had seen Kadhafi himself and that he was wearing a khaki uniform and a turban. Libyan TV channel "Libya lil Ahrar" carried the same news but a pro-Kadhafi television website insisted the strongman remained at liberty and AFP was not able to independently able to confirm the capture. "The reports peddled by the lackeys of NATO about the capture or death of the brother leader, Moamer Kadhafi, are baseless," said Al-Libiya television. Kadhafi "is in good health," it insisted. Ali Errishi, who served as Kadhafi's minister of immigration before defecting to the rebellion, said he was "confident" the strongman was in custody. "That is the end of a long ordeal of the Libyan people," he told the Al-Jazeera news channel. NTC fighters who had fought in the bloody seven-month conflict that toppled the veteran despot at a cost of more than 25,000 lives, were jubilant at the news of his capture. Pick-up trucks blaring out patriotic music criss-crossed the streets of Sirte, as fighters flashed V for victory signs and chanted Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest). A lot of pickup trucks are playing the new national anthem and other revolutionary songs. "I am happy we have got revenge for our people who suffered for all these years and for those who were killed in the revolution. Kadhafi is finished," said fighter Talar al-Kashmi. (*)

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