Libya crisis: NATO attack kills Gaddafi's son, Gaddafi survives

Tripoli - Saif al-Arab Gaddafi, 29, the youngest son of Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi, was killed Saturday in a NATO airstrike on the capital Tripoli, a spokesman for the government said on state television.

Leader Gaddafi and his wife survived the attack, though they were in the same house, the spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told reporters after they were led on a tour of the bombing site, CNN reported.
Ibrahim said three grandchildren of Gaddafi were also killed in the attack on Saif al-Arab
Gaddafi's house, which was struck by at least three missiles.

State television showed pictures of a destroyed house and, later, night-time scenes of angry pro-government protesters in Tripoli outraged over the killings.

'The house of Saif al-Arab Gaddafi was attacked tonight with full power. The leader with his wife was there in the house with other friends and family members,' government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told reporters.

Ibrahim said the attacks led to Saif al-Arab's 'martyrdom.' 'This was a direct attempt to assassinate the leader of the country,' added Ibrahim. NATO has denied similar accusations by the Libyan government before, and has said their operations only aim at ending violence against civilians.

Opposition fighters were celebrating the news of the death in the eastern city of Benghazi, firing gunshots in the air. Broadcaster Al Jazeera reported that some of the rebels celebrating said they felt the news indicated that Gaddafi was weaker than before.

But opposition representatives in and outside the country expressed their doubt regarding the incident, arguing that Gaddafi might be seeking to gain sympathy after his call for ceasefire was rejected.

Gaddafi said he was willing to negotiate with NATO to bring an end to alliance airstrikes against his country. The Benghazi-based rebels seeking his ouster from the country rejected the call saying 'the time for compromise has passed.'

NATO has been in command of the international military operation in Libya for just under five weeks, including airstrikes that are being used as part of the UN-authorised no-fly zone.
Conflict between Gaddafi and the rebels began in February after a bloody government crackdown on
anti-government protesters.

Saif al-Arab is the least publicly known of Colonel Gaddafi's children. Gaddafi has a second son named Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, an architect, who has had a high profile role as chair of the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation (GICDF).

According to a 2009 cable leaked by Wikileaks, the dead son has lived in Munich, where he 'pursues ill-defined business interests and spends much time partying.'
Other reports say he was well known to Munich police for, among other things, driving a very loud
Ferrari and getting involved in fisticuffs at celebrity clubs.

There had been reports that a second son of Moamer Gaddafi, Chamies al-Gadaffi, was killed shortly after the rebellion began in Libya. Rebels reported that a pilot of the Libyan air force had intentionally crashed his plane over Bab al-Azizia, the government compound in Tripoli where Chamies was staying.

The report has been dismissed by the government. In February, the UN slapped a travel ban and an asset freeze on Saif al-Arab, among the rest of Gaddafi's family and senior aides, after the conflict began.