In an unconfirmed Libyan government report, a NATO airstrike purportedly killed Moammar Gadhafi’s youngest son and grandchildren but the dictator himself survived. The attack came hours after Gadhafi had called for negotations, a call many increasingly distrust given his not-so-trusthworthy record.
Reuters reports:
The youngest son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and three of his grandchildren were killed in a NATO airstrike, the government said early Sunday, NBC News reported.
Gadhafi and his wife were in the Tripoli house hit by a NATO missile but were not injured, said government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim.
Saif al-Arab Gadhafi, 29, had spent much of his time in Germany in recent years.
Libyan officials took journalists to the house, which had been hit by at least three missiles. The roof had completely caved in in some areas, leaving strings of reinforcing steel hanging down among chunks of concrete.
A table football machine stood outside in the garden of the house, which was in a wealthy residential area of Tripoli.
Ibrahim said the villa was attacked “with full power.”
“This was a direct operation to assassinate the leader of this country,” the spokesman added.
The strike came after Gadhafi early Saturday called for negotiations with NATO powers to end airstrikes on Libya.
So the questions become:
Deal or no deal? True report — or fabrication to whip up sympathy?? CNN:
Moammar Gadhafi and his wife were in their son’s house when it was targeted, spokesman Musa Ibrahim said. Both of them are in good health, according to the spokesman.
The victim is one of two of Gadhafi’s sons named Saif. The other is Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, who had previously touted reform but has emerged as one of his father’s most visible defenders in recent months.
The house in Tripoli was destroyed by the strike, with a massive crater where the house used to be. At least one unexploded bomb could be seen at the scene.
The building was in a residential area of Tripoli, according to Ibrahim, who insisted that Saif al-Arab Gadhafi was a student in Germany who was not deeply involved in Libya’s military and government. The 29-year-old was the sixth of Gadhafi’s eight children.
Ibrahim railed against NATO after the fatal strike, calling it an illegal act and a “war crime.”
NATO officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
A spokesman for the Libyan opposition doubted the veracity of the report, saying, “In all honesty, we never heard of Saif al-Arab until the start of the uprising.”
“We don’t believe this is true,” said Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, deputy chairman of the Transitional National Council in Benghazi. “It is all fabrications by the regime in a desparate attempt to get sympathy … This regime constantly lies and keeps lying.”
Journalists say the building was extensively damaged and one unexploded bomb remains at the site.
Saif al-Arab was the youngest of Col Gaddafi’s sons, with a lower profile than his brother Saif al-Islam.
He had been studying in Germany and returned to Libya recently.
Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said the villa was attacked “with full power.”
“The attack resulted in the martyrdom of brother Saif al-Arab Gaddafi, 29 years old, and three of the leader’s grandchildren,” he said.
“The leader with his wife was there in the house with other friends and relatives, the leader himself is in good health, he wasn’t harmed.”
“This was a direct operation to assassinate the leader of this country,” the spokesman added.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.