U.N. questions Gadhafi death narrative

GENEVA, Switzerland, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- The circumstances surrounding the death of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi are disturbing and cause for investigation, a U.N. official said.

Gadhafi was announced dead Thursday by the ruling National Transitional Council. NTC military chief Abdul Hakim Belhadj said Gadhafi died of a gunshot wound to the head in his hometown of Sirte.

Gadhafi was captured after pro-NTC troops took over Sirte during fighting Thursday.

The narrative, however, is sketchy. NATO forces acknowledged they struck a convoy thought to be carrying Gadhafi loyalists. Based on at least two cellphone videos, Gadhafi was pulled, dazed and bloodied but alive, from a drainage ditch. He is later shown dead, though the circumstances surrounding his death are unclear.

Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said there are "four or five" versions circulating about Gadhafi's death.

"We believe there is a need for an investigation and more details are needed to ascertain whether he was killed in the fighting or after his capture," he said in a statement from Geneva.

He said there was an independent commission of inquiry for Libya set up by the Human Rights Council would "very likely" look into Gadhafi's death.

"Other forms of investigation might also be considered," he said.

International forces were operating in Libya under a U.N. mandate that sanctioned "all necessary measures" to protect the civilian population from Gadhafi loyalists. NATO forces said they would start the steps needed to end the mission there.