President Barack Obama said on Thursday that the death of Libyan Leader Muammar Gadhafi marks the end of a long and painful chapter for the Libyan people, and is an opportunity for them to determine their own destiny.

“For four decades, the Gadhafi regime ruled the Libyan people with an iron fist, Libya’s wealth was squandered, but today we can definitively say that the Gadhafi regime has come to an end,” Obama said in a statement delivered in the White House Rose Garden.

Obama said that the death of Gadhafi and the final end of his rule shows that brutality and ruling with an iron fist must inevitably come to an end.

The U.S. president said that the last major Libyan regime strongholds have fallen, giving way for a new government that is consolidating the control over the country.

“One of the world’s longest-serving dictators is no more,” Obama said.

The U.S. president recalled how just one year ago, the notion of a free Libya seemed impossible. “But then the Libyan people rose up, and demanded their rights. And when Gadhafi and his forces started going city to city, town by town to brutalize men, women and children, the world refused to stand idly by,” he said.

For more, go to Haaretz.com

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