The body of ousted Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi was buried early Tuesday morning, a National Transitional Council spokesman told CNN.

Gadhafi, his son Mutassim and his defense minister Abu Bakr Younis were taken to an undisclosed location for burial five days after he was killed in Sirte, according to Anees al-Sharif, spokesman for the National Transitional Council’s military arm in Tripoli.
Members of the former leader’s tribe were allowed to pray over the body, Sharif said.

The three bodies had been available for public viewing from a cold storage unit in recent days, except for being removed temporarily so autopsies could be conducted. Gadhafi’s family had issued a statement calling on the United Nations and Amnesty International to push Libya’s new leadership “to hand over the bodies of the martyrs of their tribe so they can be buried according to Islamic rites,” a pro-Gadhafi TV station reported.

The National Transitional Council and the United Nations have called for an independent investigation into the death of the man who ruled Libya for 42 years. Human Rights Watch, in a statement issued Monday, described his and Mutassim’s deaths as “still unexplained.”

(Source: CNN)