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Libya: NATO bomb kills Gadhafi’s son
AP
Photo
A Libyan man, center, cries next the body of a Libyan rebel fighter at Hikma hospital in the besieged city of Misrata, Libya, Saturday, April 30, 2011. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi called for a cease-fire and negotiations with NATO powers in a live speech on state TV early Saturday, just as NATO bombs struck a government complex in the Libyan capital.
Associated Press
TRIPOLI, Libya
NATO says it struck a government building in Tripoli but can’t confirm that one of Moammar Gadhafi’s sons was killed.
Today’s statement comes hours after an airstrike that the Libya regime said killed Gadhafi’s youngest son, Seif al-Arab, and three of the Libyan leader’s grandchildren. Gadhafi escaped unharmed.
NATO says it struck a “command-and- control building in the Bab al-Azizya neighborhood” Saturday evening, insisting all its targets are military in nature and linked to Gadhafi’s systematic attacks on the population.
Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard says he is aware of unconfirmed reports that some Gadhafi family members may have been killed and he regrets “all loss of life, especially the innocent civilians being harmed as a result of the ongoing conflict.” A NATO missile struck a house in Tripoli where Moammar Gadhafi and his wife were staying Saturday, missing the Libyan leader but killing his youngest son and three grandchildren, a government spokesman said.
Seif al-Arab Gadhafi, 29, was the brother of the better-known Seif al-Islam Gadhafi. The younger Gadhafi had spent much of his time in Germany in recent years.
Moammar Gadhafi and his wife were in the Tripoli house of Seif al-Arab, when it was hit by at least one bomb dropped from a NATO warplane, Libyan spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said.
“The leader himself is in good health,” Ibrahim said. “He was not harmed. The wife is also in good health.”
On Tuesday, British Defense Minister Liam Fox and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters at the Pentagon that NATO planes were not targeting Gadhafi specifically but would continue to attack his command centers.
Ibrahim said Seif al-Arab had studied at a German university but had not yet completed his studies.
“The attack resulted in the martyrdom of brother Seif al-Arab Gadhafi, 29, and three of the leader’s grandchildren,” Ibrahim said.
Journalists taken to the walled complex of one-story buildings in a residential Tripoli neighborhood saw heavy bomb damage. The blast had torn down the ceiling of one building and left a huge pile of rubble and twisted metal on the ground.
Ibrahim said the airstrike was an attempt to “assassinate the leader of this country,” which he said violated international law.
Heavy bursts of gunfire were heard in Tripoli after the attack.
Gadhafi had seven sons and one daughter. Seif al-Arab was the youngest son.
The Libyan leader also had an adopted daughter who was killed in a 1986 U.S. airstrike on his Bab al-Aziziya residential compound, which was separate from the area struck Saturday. That strike came in retaliation for the bombing attack on a German disco in which two U.S. servicemen were killed. The U.S. at the time blamed Libya for the disco blast.
The fatal airstrike came just hours after Gadhafi called for a mutual cease-fire and negotiations with NATO powers to end a six-week bombing campaign.
In Brussels, a NATO official said before Saturday’s strike that the alliance needed “to see not words but actions” and vowed the alliance would keep up the pressure until the U.N. Security Council mandate on Libya is fulfilled.