Jubilation in Libya as liberation declared

LIBYA declared itself liberated yesterday after 42 years of rule by Muammar Gaddafi ended with his capture and death last week, getting the North African state ready for a transition towards democracy.

Tens of thousands who before this year’s revolt had known nothing but Gaddafi’s all-powerful police state packed a square in the second city Benghazi to hear the interim National Transitional Council (NTC) announce the country had freed itself completely from his rule.

Some fear NTC chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil will struggle to impose his will on his well-armed but fragmenting revolutionary alliance, pointing to the insistence by Misrata on displaying Gaddafi’s body three days after his death, in apparent breach of Islamic practice.