Gadhafi's Demise: The Drone, the Mirage and the Unknown Gunman

As the fog of war slowly lifts in Libya, it still is not clear how exactly Moammar Gadhafi died Thursday while trying to flee his hometown of Sirte in a conspicuous convoy of about 100 vehicles.

What is known, thanks to confirmations today out of Washington and Paris, is that an American Predator drone teamed up with a French Mirage 2000 fighter jet to halt the convey and send its passengers scrambling, including Gadhafi.

Both the Predator and Mirage fired on the convoy, striking at least two vehicles. As videos and photos show, Gadhafi was wounded in those strikes, but was very much alive after he ran and hid in a roadside storm drain.

Revolutionary forces quickly hunted down the men who ran from their vehicles, finding several, including Gadhafi, down the drain.

Video and still photos show Gadhafi being roughed-up, but still alive in the revolutionary fighters' custody. A short while later, he was dead apparently the victim of a gunshot wound to the head, and, according to some reports, his chest and stomach, as well.

In Geneva, Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the images "are very disturbing" because they suggest Gadhafi was killed after he was captured.

"We believe there is a need for an investigation," Colville said. "More details are needed to ascertain whether he was killed in some form of fighting or was executed after his capture."

So far there is no great rush by the governments in Tripoli, Washington, Paris, London, Ottawa or Istanbul to make a big deal of the details of the death of Gadhafi, whose body was put on ice in Misurata while people decide what to do with his remains.

Instead, the more universal sentiment from the revolutionary government, NATO members and their allies is that, for Gadhafi, the Arab Spring is over and the world is better off without him.

NATO Loses Unmanned Drone Over Libya

NATO lost contact with an "unmanned autonomous helicopter drone" over Libya today, but disputed the Libyan propaganda machine's claims that it was one of the alliance's manned attack helicopters.

"We are looking into the reasons behind the incident," NATO military spokesman Wing Commander Mike Bracken said in the statement.

Libyan state television reported it was one of Britain's Apache attack helicopters that went down, but Bracken said that was not true.

"NATO confirms it has not lost any attack helicopter," Bracken said.

Drone Strikes Aim at Awlaki; Clinton Says Saleh Broke Promises

The uptick in the CIA's drone war in Yemen shows there is no disguising U.S. concerns over losing the chief Yemeni ally in the war against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

U.S. drones and Yemeni military are "taking advatage of the power vacuum" created by the departure of President Ali Abdullah Saleh to keep American-born Al Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki from solidifying his move to gain control of AQAP, a career counter-terrorism official explained.

The mission's objective is to eliminate Awlaki. The CIA had targeted him since shortly after Osama bin Laden was killed in the daring raid on his compound in Pakistan.

Yemeni military are also engaged in hunting Awlaki and other AQAP operatives, but sources say there are still concerns that the U.S. could lose "assets" and access in Yemen without Saleh, who is being treated in Saudi Arabia for serious wounds in the assassination attempt on him last Friday.

Concerns over whether the predator drones will be given permission to fly over Yemen in the future have not kept the U.S. from calling for Saleh to give up power so free elections can be held. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today Saleh has failed to keep his part of the bargain to allow the election to go forward.

"On several opportunities, President Saleh did not go forward with what we thought had been agreed to," Clinton said in Abu Dhabi at meetings on the future of Libya, another country like Yemen where The Arab Spring freedom movement has taken root.

"We don’t think that the instability can be fully addressed until those changes commence. And so we’re going to continue to consult closely with our friends in the region to determine the best way forward," Clinton said.

"I can’t speculate on what President Ali Abdullah Saleh will decide to do. That’s obviously up to him. But Yemen has a strong constitution, and we believe if their constitution were actually implemented, Yemen would be moving in the right direction," Clinton added.