"He has been captured. He is badly wounded, but he is still breathing," Mohamed Leith told AFP, adding that he had seen Qadhafi himself and that he was wearing a kaki uniform and a turban.

Libyan TV channel "Libya lil Ahrar" also said that he was in custody.

In Sirte, medics said the defence minister in Qadhafi 's ousted regime, Abu Bakr Yunis, had been killed in the final battle for the strongman's hometown.

His body was identified at the field hospital where it was brought in a pick-up truck on Thursday, Dr Abdu Rauf told AFP.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011