Gadhafi to be buried in secret desert spot

MISURATA, Libya, Oct. 25 (UPI) —

Ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was to be buried in an unmarked grave in a secret desert location Tuesday, a transitional government official said.
The burial announcement came as National Transitional Council Chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil ordered an inquiry to determine whether Gadhafi was killed in an execution-style assassination after being captured alive by fighters Thursday or died in cross fire as government officials assert.
We have formed a committee to investigate how Gadhafi was killed during the clashes with his supporters while arresting him, Jalil said.
Jalil suggested anti-Gadhafi fighters may not have been the ones who killed him, hinting the fatal bullets might have come from Gadhafi supporters who feared he would implicate them in atrocities if he survived and was put on trial, The New York Times reported.
Gadhafi was captured in the south coastal city of Sirte, Libya, as fighters battling the vestiges of his fallen regime finally wrested control of his hometown.
Cellphone videos show the fighters taunting and beating a wounded Gadhafi shortly before he died. A later video shows his bruised corpse, with at least one bullet wound to the head.
Libyan doctors who performed an autopsy Sunday said Gadhafi died of gunshot wounds to the head and abdomen.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Washington supported the provisional government’s investigation but said it was now time for Libya to move on.
The bodies of Gadhafi, his son Mutassim Gadhafi and former Defense Minister Maj. Gen. Abu-Bakr Yunis — all killed Thursday — were removed from the western city of Misurata late Monday after four days of public viewing in cold storage in a shopping center, CNN and Britain’s Sky News reported.
The three bodies were expected to be buried together in the same ceremony, with Muslim clerics in attendance, Voice of America reported.
Gadhafi’s family called on the United Nations and Amnesty International to push Libya’s new leadership to hand over the bodies of the martyrs of their tribe so they can be buried according to Islamic rites, a pro-Gadhafi TV station reported.
The official Egyptian news agency said Libya’s office for fatwas, or religious legal pronouncements, declared Gadhafi did not merit an Islamic funeral because he had denied the Prophet Mohammed’s teachings and was therefore not a Muslim.