(Adds protests in Yemen, Syria, comments from Libya, Yemen and Gaza)
* Arabs say Gaddafi's death is a lesson to other Arab leaders
* Some say Gaddafi should have been put on trial
* NATO involvement muted joy at change
By Sami Aboudi
DUBAI, Oct 21 (Reuters) - For many Arabs, the humiliating capture and killing of Muammar Gaddafi, the longest-serving Arab leader, is a lesson to other tyrants in a region that has overthrown three long-serving rulers this year.
But some said on Friday that Libya would have been better off if its former leader had been given a fair trial for abuses committed during his 42-year rule.
"The world now has one less dictator," said Ziad Khalil, a Beirut shopkeeper, a day after Gaddafi's death. "This is the end he deserves."
Abdallah Hindi, a grocer in Sanaa, said: "The Libyan people can rest. I hope other leaders can take an example from this."
In Cairo, Youssef Hammad, a 43-year-old business executive, said he was not surprised by Gaddafi's gruesome demise.
"The way he was going to die, if caught, was sealed when he ignored his people's calls for a more open and free society. Instead he vowed to hunt them down one by one, alleyway by alleyway, like rats. Ironically that's how he met his maker."
But it would have been better to see Gaddafi survive to appear before the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Hammad added: "It would have sent the world the message that the new Libya was less gruesome than Gaddafi's."
Gaddafi, a fugitive since August, was killed on Thursday after fighters for the National Transitional Council captured his last stronghold and hometown of Sirte.
He tried to flee the city in a convoy, braving NATO air strikes. His captors found him hiding in a drainage culvert, and cell phone video showed a bloodied Gaddafi being beaten.
Libyan Interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said Gaddafi was hit during "crossfire" while being taken to hospital, but most Libyans, including officials, seemed to have little doubt that he was killed by his captors.
"It's a mixed feeling. I think definitely Gaddafi had to go, but I think he deserved a fair trial. I'm not happy with the way he died," said Egyptian journalist Khaled Dawoud. "This could have a relatively negative effect for a peaceful transition to democracy."
Many Libyans had no such qualms.
"It is like a wedding day or a festival. Today is the best day of my life," said Fathaya Alamamy, a secretary from the eastern city of Benghazi. "I don't see Gaddafi was treated unfairly in any way. They did what they had to do to bring him down."
The Egyptian cabinet said after a meeting on Thursday it was looking forward to helping the Libyan people rebuild their country. Most Arab governments had yet to comment on the death.
In the Gaza Strip, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a top leader in the Palestinian Islamist Hamas group, said the will of the Libyan people must be respected.
"I believe that the Libyan people made up their minds and that was their decision. We respect the decisions of nations and we see that era should be bypassed now," Zahar said.
LESSON TO TYRANTS
Gaddafi was the third Arab head of state to be ousted in 2011, after Tunisia's Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak. But unlike Ben Ali and Mubarak, toppled by popular uprisings in January and February, Gaddafi was overthrown in a civil war the new interim government says killed 30,000 people.
Many Arabs said Gaddafi's death was likely to scare Arab leaders still clinging to power in Syria and Yemen in the face of months of pro-democracy protests and crackdowns by security forces that have seen thousands of people killed.
In the Omani capital Muscat, banker Haji Ismail said Gaddafi's death was a lesson to other Arab rulers. "They will face such a fate if they keep oppressing their people."
In Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad has faced seven months of popular protests against his rule, video footage of a demonstration on Thursday night in Homs province showed people chanting: "Bashar, it is your turn next!"
In the town of Houla, protesters raised placards saying: "Syrian rebels congratulate the Libyan people for killing the rat Muammar Gaddafi", and "Death is the fate of all oppressive rulers -- first the rat Muammar Gaddafi, then the thug Bashar al-Assad".
In Yemen's capital Sanaa, tens of thousands of anti-government protesters listened to a Muslim preacher urging them to persevere to bring about a new Yemen.
"Oh Yemeni people, you will be victorious and your enemy will be defeated," the preacher said at Change Square.
At a separate pro-government demonstration, speakers repeated leader Ali Abdullah Saleh's position that the only way to change the government would be to hold a new election.
Many in the Arab world said the success of the Libyan uprising would have been more welcome had NATO forces not been involved. NATO deployed aircraft officially to protect Libyan civilians in a U.N.-mandated operation but took a visible role in the fighting that ousted Gaddafi.
"It would have been a triumph for all Arabs if Libyans themselves removed Gaddafi without NATO help," said Suleiman Al Sharji, an Omani political commentator. "Now we have more questions on foreign interference as versus self-rule than ever before."
Amr Moussa, a former Arab League Secretary-General who led the body when it asked for international intervention to help Libyan civilians, said he hoped that Libya would move forward quickly to achieve the goals of its people.
"I hope that Libya will transition after Gaddafi's departure into ... building a modern Libya and achieving stability and real democracy," the independent Egyptian daily al-Tahrir newspaper quoted him as saying. (Additional reporting by Shaima Fayed, Maha El Dahan and Omar Fahmy in Cairo, Saleh Al-Shaibani in Muscat, Dominic Evans in Beirut, Yasmine Saleh in Tripoli, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Mohammed Sudam in Sanaa; Editing by Peter Graff)
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