Anis Mili / Reuters
Mourners pray near the coffin of Omran Shaaban on Tuesday in Misrata, Libya.
By NBC News wire services
One of the young Libyan rebels credited with capturing Moammar Gadhafi in a drainage ditch nearly a year ago died Tuesday of injuries he allegedly sustained after he was kidnapped by the late dictator's supporters.
The death of Omran Shaaban, who had been hospitalized in France, raised the prospect of even more violence and score-settling, with the newly elected National Congress authorizing police and the army to use force if necessary to apprehend those who abducted the 22-year-old and three companions near the town of Bani Walid?in July.
His family claimed he was shot by gunmen, then captured and tortured by militiamen still loyal to Gadhafi.
Libya is battling lingering pockets of support for the old regime, and its government has been unable to rein in armed militias in a country rife with weapons. Earlier this month, a demonstration at the U.S. Consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi turned violent, killing four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.
Shaaban was praised as a "dutiful martyr" and a "brave hero" by the National Congress, which has?ordered the defense and interior ministries to find those who abducted Shaaban.
No reward
However, his family says he never received a promised reward of 1 million Libyan dinars ($800,000) for capturing Gadhafi on Oct. 20, 2011, in the former leader's hometown of Sirte. The eccentric dictator was killed later that day by revolutionary fighters.
His body was greeted at the airport in his hometown of Misrata by more than 10,000 people for a procession to the soccer stadium for prayers Tuesday and he was buried early Wednesday.
Ousted Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi was shown no mercy and brutally killed by the same people he ruled over for more than 40 years. Graphic pictures and videos captured his final moments. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
His brother Hussein complained that the Libyan authorities did nothing to help Shaaban. ?
"Libya was declared liberated of Gadhafi's rule on October 23 last year. It isn't," he told Reuters.
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On Tuesday in the capital Tripoli, several hundred protesters gathered outside the headquarters of the National Congress to demand that the government avenge Shaaban's death.
Shaaban's family said that he and three friends had been en route home to the western city of Misrata from a vacation in July when they were attacked by gunmen in an area called el-Shimekh near Bani Walid.
Shaaban and his friends, who like many Libyans were armed, fired back, the family said.
Two bullets hit Shaaban, and he was paralyzed from the waist down, his relatives said, and the men were captured by Bani Walid militiamen.
A town of about 100,000 people, it remains a stronghold of Gadhafi loyalists and is isolated from the rest of Libya.
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President Mohammed el-Megarif visited Bani Walid this month and secured the release of Shaaban and two of his companions. A fourth is still being held.
'Sliced with razors'
When Shaaban was finally brought home, he was "skin and bones" ? still paralyzed, frail and slipping in and out of consciousness, according to another brother, Abdullah.
"It was clear he was beaten a lot," Abdullah Shaaban said. "His entire chest was sliced with razors. His face had changed. It wasn't my brother that I knew."
Omran Shaaban was later flown to France for medical treatment.
Shaaban, the second youngest in a family of nine children, was a member of Libya Shield, a loose coalition of the country's largest militias relied on by the Defense Ministry.
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Khalifa al-Zawawi, the former head of Misrata's local council, said the government reneged on paying the reward to Shaaban.
Abdullah Shaaban said his brother did not mind, saying he considered capturing Gadhafi to be his national duty.
While Libya's president released a statement Tuesday vowing that those responsible for the violence against Omran Shaaban would be punished,?apprehending and disarming the militants in Bani Walid are among the most daunting tasks facing the government.
The town is heavily armed with rocket-propelled grenades, automatic weapons and artillery left over from last year's civil war.
Residents there say that pictures of Gadhafi are displayed during weddings and youths play his speeches on their cars' stereos. Students refrain from singing Libya's new national anthem and teachers refuse to follow the revised curriculum.
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Bani Walid fighters were blamed for many of the sniper attacks, shelling, rapes and other violence against the city of Misrata during the civil war, and there were new calls Tuesday from residents of Misrata for vengeance against Bani Walid.
In July, fighters from Misrata threatened to attack Bani Walid after two journalists from their town were detained there. The journalists were eventually released after mediation by the authorities.
Shaaban's eldest brother, Walid, insisted there would be justice for the family, regardless of whether the government is the one to administer it.
"I plan to pursue his rights legally and join if there is a military incursion. We are going to death, God willing," Walid Shaaban said.
Family friend Abu-Shaala echoed that sentiment.
"If the government does not go in, we are going in," he said. "We are all patient. But our patience has limits."
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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