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| Muammar Gaddafi |
The bodies of ex-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, his son Mutassim and a high aide are buried in secret within the desert, Libyan officers say.
A National Transitional Council (NTC) official told the BBC the bodies were buried at dawn in an unknown location.
This follows days of apparent uncertainty among the new leadership concerning what to try to to with the bodies.
Gaddafi's family wished them buried outside the previous leader's hometown of Sirte.
NTC leaders had expressed a preference for a secret burial.
Bound by Fatwa
Officials have given few details of the ceremony.
They say it happened early Tuesday. a number of relatives and officers were in attendance and Islamic prayers were scan.
Libya's Minister for data Mahmoud Shammam said the NTC was following a fatwa, or non secular ruling.
"It says that his body mustn't be buried in Muslim cemeteries and may not be buried during a known place to avoid any sedition," Mr Shammam said.
An NTC official had earlier told Reuters news agency that Col Gaddafi would be buried during a "simple" ceremony with "sheikhs attending" on Tuesday.
"It are going to be an unknown location within the open desert," he said, adding that a burial was required as a result of decomposition of the body had reached the purpose where the "corpse cannot last any longer".
Gaddafi, Mutassim and former Defence Minister Abu Bakr Younis Jabr were killed on Thursday following the autumn of Sirte, the last major pro-Gaddafi bastion.
Witnesses said the bodies had been removed late on Monday from the meat storage warehouse in Misrata where they'd been on show.
The BBC was told prayers were said over the bodies before they were driven away.
"Our job is finished," a security guard at the warehouse, Salem al Mohandes, told the Arabic tv station al-Jazeera. "[Gaddafi] was transferred and therefore the military council of Misrata took him away to an unknown location."
Shrine fears
The BBC's Katya Adler in Tripoli says the question of the way to get rid of Gaddafi's body has been a political minefield for the new Libyan leadership, and is that the reason why it's taken four days for a choice to be taken.
Islamic tradition dictates a burial ought to happen inside daily of the death.
But the NTC leadership was involved that any public grave might become a shrine for Gaddafi loyalists or a target of hatred for people who opposed his regime, our correspondent says.
In the end, she adds, the decomposition of the body meant the NTC had to act.
Questions are raised over the previous leader's death when video footage showed him alive at the time of capture. officers said he had been killed subsequently during a crossfire.
A post-mortem examination disbursed on the 69-year-old's body on Sunday showed he had received a bullet wound to the pinnacle, medical sources said.
Acting Libyan leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil said the NTC had shaped a committee to analyze the circumstances surrounding his death.
Meanwhile another of Gaddafi's sons, Saif al-Islam, remains at massive. he's believed to own fled towards the desert border with Niger.
A Niger official said Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was travelling with ethnic Tuaregs - who were among Gaddafi's supporters.News by BBC
A National Transitional Council (NTC) official told the BBC the bodies were buried at dawn in an unknown location.
This follows days of apparent uncertainty among the new leadership concerning what to try to to with the bodies.
Gaddafi's family wished them buried outside the previous leader's hometown of Sirte.
NTC leaders had expressed a preference for a secret burial.
Bound by Fatwa
Officials have given few details of the ceremony.
They say it happened early Tuesday. a number of relatives and officers were in attendance and Islamic prayers were scan.
Libya's Minister for data Mahmoud Shammam said the NTC was following a fatwa, or non secular ruling.
"It says that his body mustn't be buried in Muslim cemeteries and may not be buried during a known place to avoid any sedition," Mr Shammam said.
An NTC official had earlier told Reuters news agency that Col Gaddafi would be buried during a "simple" ceremony with "sheikhs attending" on Tuesday.
"It are going to be an unknown location within the open desert," he said, adding that a burial was required as a result of decomposition of the body had reached the purpose where the "corpse cannot last any longer".
Gaddafi, Mutassim and former Defence Minister Abu Bakr Younis Jabr were killed on Thursday following the autumn of Sirte, the last major pro-Gaddafi bastion.
Witnesses said the bodies had been removed late on Monday from the meat storage warehouse in Misrata where they'd been on show.
The BBC was told prayers were said over the bodies before they were driven away.
"Our job is finished," a security guard at the warehouse, Salem al Mohandes, told the Arabic tv station al-Jazeera. "[Gaddafi] was transferred and therefore the military council of Misrata took him away to an unknown location."
Shrine fears
The BBC's Katya Adler in Tripoli says the question of the way to get rid of Gaddafi's body has been a political minefield for the new Libyan leadership, and is that the reason why it's taken four days for a choice to be taken.
Islamic tradition dictates a burial ought to happen inside daily of the death.
But the NTC leadership was involved that any public grave might become a shrine for Gaddafi loyalists or a target of hatred for people who opposed his regime, our correspondent says.
In the end, she adds, the decomposition of the body meant the NTC had to act.
Questions are raised over the previous leader's death when video footage showed him alive at the time of capture. officers said he had been killed subsequently during a crossfire.
A post-mortem examination disbursed on the 69-year-old's body on Sunday showed he had received a bullet wound to the pinnacle, medical sources said.
Acting Libyan leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil said the NTC had shaped a committee to analyze the circumstances surrounding his death.
Meanwhile another of Gaddafi's sons, Saif al-Islam, remains at massive. he's believed to own fled towards the desert border with Niger.
A Niger official said Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was travelling with ethnic Tuaregs - who were among Gaddafi's supporters.News by BBC
