:00:10. > :00:16.The death of Muammar Gaddafi was both an end and a beginning. This
:00:17. > :00:20.footage broadcast for the first time shows more clearly than ever the
:00:21. > :00:32.Colonel's final moments. Blood-stained fighters became
:00:33. > :00:40.instant heroes, brandishing the dictator's golden pistol. Absolutely
:00:41. > :00:44.wild celebrations here... I was there as they passed it among
:00:45. > :00:50.themselves, a symbol of their victory and their dreams for a new
:00:51. > :00:57.Libya. Nearly five years on, I have returned to see if I can find that
:00:58. > :01:09.gun. That's you, and that's me. I've returned to a country still at war.
:01:10. > :01:16.To a country where the group that calls itself Islamic State grows
:01:17. > :01:20.stronger by the day. Basically just beyond this point here is Islamic
:01:21. > :01:23.State controlled territory. Where the hope of the Arab Spring feels
:01:24. > :01:47.like a distant memory. The brutal nature of the Colonel's
:01:48. > :01:55.killing perhaps foreshadow what was to come. Today the euphoria of the
:01:56. > :01:58.revolution's evaporated, in its place, a multitude of factions,
:01:59. > :02:02.Islamist versus separatist, East versus West. Rival couple,
:02:03. > :02:06.governments have left a vacuum in which Islamic State is flourishing,
:02:07. > :02:13.kidnappings and killings are commonplace. The Golden gun was the
:02:14. > :02:19.ultimate war trophy, the symbol of a transfer of power in the new Libya.
:02:20. > :02:22.But today we've got a whole bunch of different groups vying for control
:02:23. > :02:30.here. So I want to know where that pistol is now. Perhaps the fate of
:02:31. > :02:35.the Golden gun can tell us something about what's happened to Libya. This
:02:36. > :02:40.is Misrata, home to the fighters who caught Gaddafi. Today it's a semi-
:02:41. > :02:44.independent citystate. The main focus now is the battle against
:02:45. > :02:49.Islamic State. They've taken control of the neighbouring city of Sirte.
:02:50. > :03:15.Once again, Misrata is on the front line.
:03:16. > :03:43.Are you seeing senior figures from Iraq and Syria now coming to Sirte?
:03:44. > :03:51.On his wall, the intelligence chief has pictures of Misrata's heroes
:03:52. > :03:55.with Gaddafi's golden gun. This pistol has obtained almost mythical
:03:56. > :04:02.status and no one seems to know where it is -- attained. But I've
:04:03. > :04:06.got four leads. The man on the poster is the man whose face was
:04:07. > :04:10.most publicly associated with Gaddafi's capture. Then in the
:04:11. > :04:15.middle there is another man who showed me the gun right after
:04:16. > :04:21.Gaddafi was taken. Mohammed on the right in the baseball cap, who was
:04:22. > :04:27.hailed as the hero of the date, and Anwar, a local powerbroker who
:04:28. > :04:29.stored the Colonel's body in a refrigerated meat locker. -- the
:04:30. > :04:39.day. We start our search on the outskirts
:04:40. > :04:45.of Misrata at the family home where Omran showband grew up. He became
:04:46. > :04:50.the poster boy of the resolution because of his role in Gaddafi's
:04:51. > :04:56.capture -- Revolution. In the video of the event, you can see Omran
:04:57. > :05:01.quite clearly. He's the one wearing the brown leather jacket. Here he
:05:02. > :05:07.holds out his arm. He seems to be trying to shield the kernel from the
:05:08. > :05:08.mob. Omran became a national hero. He wanted Gaddafi captured so he
:05:09. > :05:33.could go on trial. -- Colonel. Omran in body the hope that Libyans
:05:34. > :05:39.could come together to heal their wounds. That the rule of law could
:05:40. > :05:44.replace dictatorship. It was not to be. Less than a year later, Omran
:05:45. > :05:49.was captured by remnants of the old regime. By the time his family could
:05:50. > :05:54.negotiate his release, he'd been badly tortured and he died from his
:05:55. > :05:58.injuries. Do you feel that the way things are now that your son's
:05:59. > :06:46.sacrifice was worth it? Misrata's relative stability is hard
:06:47. > :06:50.won, surrounded by Islamic State on one side, and other hostile factions
:06:51. > :07:00.on the other. This is a city that is still on a war footing. Juma doesn't
:07:01. > :07:10.know what happened to the Golden gun, but he does know where Nabil
:07:11. > :07:15.is. Nabil's the one who showed me the pistol on the day Gaddafi was
:07:16. > :07:24.captured. It turns out he has a job at a car mechanic's workshop just
:07:25. > :07:29.down the road. This is Nabil, this is Nabil. Nabil's colleagues tell me
:07:30. > :07:32.he's joined a militia that is fighting against Islamic State. We
:07:33. > :07:37.learn that he is in fact on his way back from the front line at this
:07:38. > :07:45.moment and we had off to meet him. This is as far as we can safely go
:07:46. > :07:51.without an armed escort. Nabil, hello, Gabriel Gate house. That's
:07:52. > :07:55.you, and that's me. For Nabil and his comrades, the fighting didn't
:07:56. > :08:00.end with the capture of Colonel Gaddafi. Down this road Islam it is
:08:01. > :08:02.he is expanding its reach. The commander tells me God willing they
:08:03. > :08:18.will prevail. -- Islamic State is. Where is the gun, do you know? It's
:08:19. > :08:22.in Misrata. Who has it. The gun is here somewhere, but he doesn't know
:08:23. > :08:34.who has it. In Misrata, in a half finished
:08:35. > :08:39.building, people have gathered for a wake. These men are from Sirte.
:08:40. > :08:50.They've managed to escape the harsh regime of Islamic State.
:08:51. > :08:57.This man's brother was arrested on suspicion of being a spy. He was
:08:58. > :09:09.executed in the most horrific manner.
:09:10. > :09:19.They show me a picture on their mobile phone. It's all over Facebook
:09:20. > :09:23.they say. O God, yeah. The man's name was Milad. He was recently
:09:24. > :09:29.married. He leaves behind an infant son. He was left like that for three
:09:30. > :09:34.days. His friends and relatives all have similar stories. They cut my
:09:35. > :09:39.nephew's head off with a sword, they said, then they displayed his corpse
:09:40. > :09:40.in public for four days. Over the past year they say foreign fighters
:09:41. > :10:01.have poured into Sirte. As in Iraq and Syria, so in Libya,
:10:02. > :10:05.Islamic State has been carrying out attacks far beyond its base in
:10:06. > :10:10.Sirte. Their targets are often civilians or the institutions of the
:10:11. > :10:15.state. The week before we arrived they detonated a truck bomb at a
:10:16. > :10:47.police training centre west of Misrata. More than 50 people died.
:10:48. > :10:56.It is just so sad. These people had thrown off the shackles of 42 years
:10:57. > :10:59.of dictatorship, and what they have found is actually something worse
:11:00. > :11:03.than that, something that is equally as brutal as Gaddafi's regime, but
:11:04. > :11:18.much more unpredictable. When Gaddafi was killed, he was
:11:19. > :11:31.brought to Misrata, where his body was put on public display by my old
:11:32. > :11:36.contact, Anwar. How you? 2011 I last saw you. Hoping him and his friends
:11:37. > :11:42.can help us search for the man who captured Gaddafi. Some are dead. One
:11:43. > :11:48.has lost his mind, they told me. He is in Misrata, is he? That is
:11:49. > :11:53.Mohammed. He was carried aloft by the crowd, held as a hero. They
:11:54. > :11:58.promise to find me his number. The last time I saw Anwar, he and his
:11:59. > :12:01.men were high on hope. Today, Libya is falling apart, fracturing a long
:12:02. > :12:23.deep faultlines. Into this poisonous mix, Islamic
:12:24. > :12:31.State has injected itself. It has made its base in Gaddafi's hometown
:12:32. > :12:35.of Sirte. Anwar and his men are well aware of what they are up against.
:12:36. > :12:39.Regime loyalists bolstered why an influx of foreign fighters. Because
:12:40. > :12:44.the international forces are fighting Daesh in Syria and Iraq,
:12:45. > :12:55.you worried they will come more strongly into Libya? Yes, because if
:12:56. > :12:59.Daesh feel there will be finished Syria and Iraq, the best place will
:13:00. > :13:00.be here for them in the beer. Because there is not a strong
:13:01. > :13:13.government to fight them -- Libya. Tripoli is the capital of a divided
:13:14. > :13:17.country. The government here is backed by an uneasy coalition of
:13:18. > :13:21.Islamist militias. It is not recognised by the international
:13:22. > :13:28.community, which instead supports a rival secular leaning administration
:13:29. > :13:32.in the East. A city where life was once oppressive, but relatively
:13:33. > :13:38.stable, has become unpredictable and dangerous. Marine has seen friends
:13:39. > :13:44.kidnapped, even killed, just for being in the wrong place at the
:13:45. > :13:48.right time. It comes daily, and that is really disturbing. You can't
:13:49. > :13:54.change it. You want to change it, but you can't, and you can't protect
:13:55. > :13:57.the people you love. You can't even protect yourself. She was a
:13:58. > :14:01.first-year medical student when the revolution began. Now she is on the
:14:02. > :14:06.cusp of becoming a qualified doctor. It is people like her who might one
:14:07. > :14:12.day turn the promise of those hopeful days into reality. Do you
:14:13. > :14:20.see a future for yourself in Libya? Well, a future, before I was making
:14:21. > :14:24.plans, five-year Antonia plans, but right now, I don't know if I will
:14:25. > :14:32.leave five days or five years? -- and ten year plans.
:14:33. > :14:40.The rise of the militias and the growth of Islamic State threatens
:14:41. > :14:47.not trust Libya's future but its past as well. Between Tripoli and
:14:48. > :14:53.Misrata is the agent Roman city -- ancient. It is one of the best
:14:54. > :15:00.preserved archaeological sites in North Africa. Should Islamic State
:15:01. > :15:12.reach this far, it would surely suffered the same fate as the Syrian
:15:13. > :15:18.city of Palmyra. The defence is left to volunteers. It's in UNESCO World
:15:19. > :15:21.Heritage status will not protect it. So men like this stand guard with
:15:22. > :15:52.nothing but a Kalashnikov. Harley is begging for help, any kind
:15:53. > :16:01.of help. More money to pay men, even radios. As it is, he is on his own
:16:02. > :16:05.-- said Iraq. We have left messages for Mohammed, finally. But
:16:06. > :16:10.meanwhile, the military has given us permission to visit their forward
:16:11. > :16:15.position. We drive south into the desert towards Sirte, where Gaddafi
:16:16. > :16:22.was from and was killed. Now it is the headquarters of Islamist state
:16:23. > :16:28.in Africa. 120 kilometres from Misrata is the last line of defence
:16:29. > :16:33.against IS. This is a crucial strategic point. This fork in the
:16:34. > :16:37.road. That way leads south, so whoever controls this road controls
:16:38. > :16:42.a vast chunk of southern Libya. This road down here takes you to Sirte,
:16:43. > :16:49.and basically just beyond this point here is IS controlled territory. As
:16:50. > :16:53.in Iraq, Islamic State in Libya has recruited loyalists of the deposed
:16:54. > :16:59.regime. Along with the foreign fighters, they make for a formidable
:17:00. > :17:04.foe. These men are from Brigade 100 and city six, an elite unit
:17:05. > :17:13.dedicated to the battle with IS -- 166. With other units, they are a
:17:14. > :17:15.combined force, about 1400 men. That is less than half the number of
:17:16. > :17:43.estimated IS fighters. Small numbers of Nato special forces
:17:44. > :17:48.have quietly been sent in to explore potential local allies. Britain,
:17:49. > :17:51.America and others are considering sending in a bigger force, perhaps
:17:52. > :17:56.as many as 6000 troops, in a training capacity. But with no
:17:57. > :18:02.agreement between the beer's rival government, the deployment has been
:18:03. > :18:09.held up -- Libya. Sooner or later, this patch of desert will likely
:18:10. > :18:15.become the next IS battleground. Hello, Mohammed. And then some news.
:18:16. > :18:20.Hello, it is Gabriel Gatehouse from the BBC. How you? I don't know if
:18:21. > :18:28.you remember, but we met in Sirte when you captured Colonel Gaddafi.
:18:29. > :18:39.You remember me? How are you? Are you free? Said that, I think, is
:18:40. > :18:46.Mohammed Elbibi, the guy with the blue top and baseball hat. He is
:18:47. > :18:55.here. I'd spoken to him. We are meeting him in an hour's time.
:18:56. > :19:02.Hello. How you? To retake our shoes of? Is that your PlayStation? You
:19:03. > :19:11.remember this? Yes. It was like you with a hero of the moment. Everyone
:19:12. > :19:19.was holding you up? They thought I killed him and I caught him. The
:19:20. > :19:24.rebels saw the gun in Mohammed's hand, so they thought he was the one
:19:25. > :19:27.who killed Gaddafi, but it wasn't. Amid the confusion, he had simply
:19:28. > :19:33.found the pistol lying on the ground. Mohammed became the
:19:34. > :19:36.accidental hero of the revolution. And do you know what has happened to
:19:37. > :19:42.the gun? Where is the gun? Can you get it? Yes, I will call my father,
:19:43. > :19:49.because it is with him. It is with him? Yes. I think we may have found
:19:50. > :19:53.the gun. The family are wary of their trophy. There are still
:19:54. > :19:59.Gaddafi loyalists out there. Mohammed asked us to tell the world
:20:00. > :20:02.it was not he who killed net. His face will forever be associated with
:20:03. > :20:08.the Golden gun, but his father wanted to remain off-camera. Do you
:20:09. > :20:20.have the gun with you now? OK. Can I see it? Wow. There it is. Yes, it's
:20:21. > :20:30.empty. OK. That is extraordinary. It's heavy. It is a present from the
:20:31. > :20:38.sign of Gaddafi. A present from his son? I think. So basically a
:20:39. > :20:43.celebration of Colonel Gaddafi's. It is extraordinary to see this thing
:20:44. > :20:46.again after 4.5 years. I help this on the day everyone thought the
:20:47. > :20:50.revolution was over and Libya was starting a bright new future. Here
:20:51. > :20:54.we are nearly five years down the line, and the country is still at
:20:55. > :21:00.war with itself. When you found this gun, did you expect things to turn
:21:01. > :21:06.out this way? I am really sad about that, because when you see Libyan
:21:07. > :21:17.killing Libyan, it is so bad. In Tripoli, this is what remains of
:21:18. > :21:24.Colonel Gaddafi's once imposing compound. Today, it is a rubbish
:21:25. > :21:30.dump. That burnt out a building was a shopping centre. It was torched by
:21:31. > :21:38.an Islamist militia who said it was a place of sin. Libya has got rid of
:21:39. > :21:41.its dictator, but the fear remains. The future of this country seems
:21:42. > :21:46.more uncertain now than it has done at any time since then. The fate of
:21:47. > :21:53.this unfinished Revolution is becoming ever more important as they
:21:54. > :21:55.smack gets sucked in to the global jihadist struggle for an Islamic
:21:56. > :22:09.State -- as Libya gets sucked in. Perhaps Gaddafi's Riddle and was
:22:10. > :22:13.indeed a foretaste of the violence that was to come -- brutal end. The
:22:14. > :22:21.long and difficult journey that would follow the Arab Spring. That
:22:22. > :22:27.Golden gun, which once symbolised a bright new era, looks today more
:22:28. > :23:05.like an omen, a promise of battles yet to be fought.
:23:06. > :23:07.We're keeping warnings under close review.