No post-mortem for Qaddafi as his body is put on display in a shopping mall freezer

Military commanders in the Libyan city of Misrata said Saturday that no post-mortem would be carried out on the body of Muammar Qaddafi despite concerns over how the ousted strongman died.

“There will be no post-mortem today, nor any day,” Misrata military council spokesman Fathi al-Bashaagha told AFP.

“No one is going to open up his body.”

His comments were confirmed by two other Misrata military commanders.

Qaddafi’s blood-streaked body was on display in a commercial freezer at a shopping center in Misrata as Libyan authorities argued about what to do with his remains and questions deepened over official accounts of the longtime dictator's death.

Men women and children continued to line up to see for themselves the body of the former leader that ruled Libya for four decades. The site’s guards had even organized separate visiting hours for families and single men.

“We want to see the dog,” some chanted.

Meanwhile, the tribe of Qaddafi urged the National Transitional Council to hand over the dead bodies of the slain leader and his sons to be buried in Sirte according to Islamic rules and tribal traditions, a statement by the tribe said on Friday.

Also Friday, new video emerged of his violent, chaotic last moments, showing fighters beating him as they dragged him away.

Nearly every aspect of Thursday’s killing of Qaddafi was mired in confusion, a sign of the difficulties ahead for Libya. Its new rulers are disorganized, its people embittered and divided. But the ruling National Transitional Council said it would declare the country's liberation on Saturday, the starting point for a timetable that calls for a new interim government within a month and elections within eight months.

The top U.N. rights chief raised concerns that Qaddafi may have been shot to death after being captured alive. The fate of his body seemed tied up in squabbles among Libya’s factions, as fighters from Misrata ─ a city brutally besieged by Qaddafi’s forces during the civil war ─ seemed to claim ownership of it, forcing the delay of a planned burial Friday.

The United States on Friday urged Libya’s interim leaders to provide “a transparent account” of the death of strongman Qaddafi, AFP reported.

The NTC “has already been working to determine the precise cause and circumstances of Qaddafi’s death and we obviously urge them to do so in an open and transparent manner as we move forward,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

“We also continue to urge them, as we have been over the past months, to treat prisoners humanely,” Toner added.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Thursday that Qaddafi’s death ended decades of “iron fist” rule in Libya and warned Arab tyrants that it showed their brutal regimes would inevitably fall.

“This is a momentous day in the history of Libya,” said Obama, adding that “the dark shadow of tyranny has been lifted.”

But Libya’s leaders were under pressure Friday to proclaim the country’s liberation and move toward democracy, amid euphoria over Qaddafi’s death despite still murky circumstances.

With suggestions, including from Russia, that the deposed dictator may have been summarily executed after his capture on Thursday, Moscow, the U.N. human rights chief and Amnesty International called for an investigation.

The NTC, Libya’s new rulers, had been expected to issue a promised declaration that the country was finally freed following the death of Qaddafi, his son Motassim and other top regime figures, and the fall of his hometown Sirte.

Such a declaration would be followed by the formation of an interim government to oversee drawing up a new constitution and holding free elections after four decades of dictatorship.

Qaddafi’s son still at large

Libya’s interim premier Mahmud Jibril said on Friday that the capture of Qaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam and his former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanussi was a priority for the government.

Jibril was visiting the coastal city of Misrata, Libya’s third-largest city, which Qaddafi’s forces devastated in a protracted siege, and where the former despot’s body was taken after he was killed on Thursday.

“I am very happy to be here with my friends in Misrata,” Jibril told AFP.

“We still have two steps − (the capture of) Seif and Sanussi,” he added, when asked what was next on the government's agenda, post-Qaddafi.

Seif al-Islam and Sanussi were indicted by the International Criminal Court in May, along with Qaddafi, for their part in the brutal suppression of Libya’s pro-democracy uprising.

NATO to finish mission

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, meanwhile, said NATO’s military operations in Libya were very close to completion and the alliance’s partners have taken a preliminary decision to end the campaign on Oct. 31.

“We agreed that our operations are very close to completion and we have taken a preliminary decision to end Operation Unified Protector on Oct. 31,” Rasmussen told a news conference after a meeting of NATO ambassadors in Brussels, according to Reuters.

“(Until Oct. 31) NATO will monitor the situation and retain the capacity to respond to threats to civilians, if needed.”

He said the alliance would take a formal decision early next week on ending the operation: “In the meantime, I will consult closely with the United Nations and the National Transitional Council.”

“I’m very proud of what we have achieved, together with our partners, including many from the region,” Rasmussen said.

Asked about the fate of Qaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam, he said NATO had no knowledge of his whereabouts.