Gadhafi buried secretly in desert grave

TRIPOLI, Libya -- Former Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi was secretly buried in a desert grave yesterday, officials said, ending a four-day spectacle in which his bloody body was displayed to a public largely overjoyed about his ignominious end after decades of repressive rule.

Like other leaders toppled in the Arab Spring uprisings, Gadhafi was despised as a corrupt authoritarian ruler. But he was viewed here as more cruel and capricious than the presidents of Egypt or Tunisia, a man who would suddenly nationalize companies or hang dissident students, and force their classmates to watch.

That explains why most Libyans have been unfazed by cellphone videos showing a blood-spattered Gadhafi punched, kicked and possibly even sodomized by revolutionaries before he died in captivity.

Human-rights groups have said the brutality surrounding Gadhafi's death marked a troubling beginning for the new democracy emerging from an eight-month, U.S.-backed war.

News services reported that a Muslim cleric recited prayers over the body before it was turned over for burial.

Libyan officials have said they wanted a secret site to prevent his tomb being desecrated or turned into a pilgrimage site. Gadhafi was buried with his son, Mutassim, and former defense minister Abu Bakr Yunis Jabir, officials said.