Update: Fox News reports that a U.S. Department of Defense official has confirmed that an armed U.S. Predator drone, along with a French fighter plane, fired on Gadhafi’s convoy.
The Pentagon’s public affairs office won’t comment on whether a U.S. aircraft killed Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, but amid conflicting and untrustworthy reports from Libya, D.C.-based experts suggest U.K or French aircraft could ultimately claim credit for ending Gadhafi’s career as tribal leader, dictator and tabloid fixture.
Reuters reported Thursday morning that NATO aircraft had attacked a group of vehicles in Gadhafi’s tribal town of Sirte, but added that NATO “would not confirm reports that Gaddafi had been a passenger.”
Reuters also said Libyan fighters claimed the credit for killing Gadhafi. “He was killed in an attack by the fighters. There is footage of that,” Mahmoud Shammam, the spokesman for the rebels’ nascent government, told the news service.
New video shows Gadhafi alive, but wounded, in the hands of Libyan rebels.
WATCH: New, unverified footage shows Gadhafi alive in the hands of Libyan rebels
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The deceased former dictator may have been captured by the rebels following a NATO air strike on a Gadhafi convoy.
“It is totally unclear … there have been so may false stories [in the past] that it is hard to know,” American Enterprise Institute vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the Danielle Pletka told The Daily Caller.
No media reports have credited the unmanned U.S. Predator aircraft that have been operating over Libya, she said.
Manned attack aircraft flying over Libya are operated by the French and British governments.
Once the campaign against Gadhafi’s forces winds down, Pletka added, “there are a lot of different paths ahead for Libya and we need to remain very involved.” The leaders of the National Transitional Government “are doing their best to bring [armed] people under control, but in a country like Libya, that’s not easy,” she said.
“We need to temper our expectations about their ability to extend authoritative control to the entire country… it’s a job of decades”
This article has been updated.
