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BLOODIED Colonel Gaddafi was executed with a single shot to the head � after begging one of his captors: "What did I ever do to you?" Libya's hated tyrant � found skulking in a drainage pipe in a suburb of his home city � was shown no mercy as he was thrown wounded on to a truck. It set off for the centre of Sirte two miles away but was surrounded by a baying mob. The monster was then hauled out � and filmed on mobile phones as he was unceremoniously dragged in agony through the dusty streets. Blood pouring from his face, the brute behind the slaughter of thousands of his countrymen desperately begged for his life. But his pleas fell on deaf ears. The Mad Dog � who had been stripped of his shirt � was killed by a bullet to the left temple. Gaddafi's humiliation did not end there. Angry crowds took off their shoes to batter his dead face with the soles � a dire Arab insult. The announcement he had been killed � as his stronghold of Sirte became the last city to fall to the revolution � sparked jubilation across the country the maniac ruled with an iron fist for 42 years. The young freedom fighter who found him hiding in the pipe under a road was hailed a national hero and paraded shoulder-high. Grinning Mohammed al Bibi, 20, was greeted by wild crowds in Sirte amid volley after volley of celebration gunfire. He told how the tyrant was armed with only his James Bond villain-style "golden gun" � which he was often photographed with � when he was discovered. The young rebel � wearing a New York Yankees baseball cap instead of an Army helmet � said that as he grabbed it, Gaddafi begged: "Don't shoot. Don't shoot." He was still brandishing the ornate souvenir as overjoyed crowds surrounded him chanting: "God is great!" Gaddafi's corpse was finally loaded on to an ambulance and taken to Misrata � the city that held out against months of slaughter by the tyrant's bloodthirsty forces. Last night the revolutionary government claimed Gaddafi was shot in the head by crossfire as he was being taken to hospital � where he arrived alive but then died. But that account was at odds with the version given by ecstatic freedom fighters in Sirte. One said in broken English: "We catch him and we shot him � somebody shot him by gun... 9mm." Adel Busamir said he saw people "beating" Gaddafi, adding: "Someone shot him with a 9mm pistol � then they took him away." The grisly footage as the balding tyrant was paraded wounded was taken as crowds chanted: "The blood of the martyrs shall not be in vain." Battered Gaddafi � blood oozing from his mouth � is seen struggling as he is pushed stumbling and shouting on to the bonnet of a pickup truck. One man shouts: "We want him alive! We want him alive!" Gaddafi is dragged away towards an ambulance � with captors pulling his hair. Later footage showed fighters rolling his lifeless body over on the pavement, stripped to the waist and with a pool of blood under his head. Abdullah Berrassali, of the National Transitional Council, later left citizens in no doubt about the tyrant's fate. He declared: "Gaddafi is dead, absolutely dead." The spokesman went on: "I have always said that the priority would be to take Gaddafi alive and put him on a fair, just trial. But if he resisted arrest there was a great likelihood he would be killed." Gaddafi's presence in Sirte, which is 300 miles from capital Tripoli, explains why fighting there has been so intense over the past few weeks � with loyalists desperate to protect their leader. British Tornado jets were yesterday in the sky, leading the reconnaissance mission when the fleeing tyrant's convoy was bombed. As Sirte fell, desperate Gaddafi snipers ditched their military uniforms and fired indiscriminately at civilians. Following the brute's death, revolutionary fighters there yelled: "We did it! We did it!" They then prayed for the 40,000 "martyrs" who had lost their lives in the uprising. Last night massive celebrations were being held from Benghazi to Tripoli as the nation hailed a "new era for free Libya". The new national flag filled streets and squares as crowds sang and fired guns in the air. Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said in Tripoli: "We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Muammar Gaddafi has been killed." Abdel-Jalil Abdel-Aziz, a doctor who was part of the medical team that accompanied the body in the ambulance and examined it, said Gaddafi had two wounds. One was to the chest, which is believed to be where he had been wounded when he crawled into the drainage pipe. The shot that killed him was to the head. The doctor said: "You can't imagine my happiness today. I can't describe my happiness. "The tyranny is gone. Now the Libyan people can rest." In Misrata, Gaddafi's body was loaded on to a vehicle to be paraded through the streets. People in Tripoli hugged each other as cars honked their horns. Military spokesman Col Ahmed Bani said: "I reassure everyone that this story has ended and this book has closed."