World exclusive: AFP is the first news agency to transmit photo of dead Moamer Kadhafi

The former Libyan strongman's bloodied face is clearly visible in the photo.

It was taken in Sirte by a rebel fighter using a mobile phone. AFP photographer Philippe Desmazes was able to take a photo of the mobile’s screen a few minutes later and transmit the picture.

“I was covering the fall of Sirte and heard gunfire a little further west of where I was. The rebels explained to us that Kadhafi’s men had tried to break out at night a little further west. There had been fighting but this sounded more like celebrations than fighting,” said Desmazes. “So I asked the fighters to take me there. When I got there, they showed me big concrete cylinders in which they said Kadhafi had been hiding when he was captured. “A little further on, I noticed some fighters gathered around a phone. I was lucky because I was the only one to notice them. The owner of the phone showed me the arrest of Kadhafi which he had filmed a few minutes earlier. Given the ambient light, it was very difficult to take a screen grab. The fighters gathered round and gave me enough shadow to take the shot. I was really lucky,” he said.

« This scoop symbolises AFP’s uninterrupted presence in Libya since February, the strength of our operation, and the courage of the Agency’s journalists,” said News Director Philippe Massonnet.

« This performance crowns months of consistency and perseverance by the agency’s journalists in this part of the world, as elsewhere. I salute and congratulate the whole network of skills which enabled this success,” said AFP Chairman and CEO Emmanuel Hoog.