Libya’s Gaddafi survives air strikes, son killed

Saif al-Arab

TRIPOLI, (Reuters) – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi  survived a NATO air strike on a Tripoli house that killed his  youngest son and three grandchildren, a government spokesman  said today.
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 mangled rods of reinforcing  steel hanging down among chunks of concrete.
“What we have now is the law of the jungle,” government  spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told a news conference. “We think now it  is clear to everyone that what is happening in Libya has nothing  to do with the protection of civilians.”

Saif al-Arab
Saif al-Arab

Gaddafi, who seized power in a 1969 coup, is fighting an  uprising by rebels who have seized much of the eastern part of  the country. British and French-led NATO forces are permitted  under a United Nations resolution to mount air attacks on   Gaddafi forces to protect civilians.
Inside one part of the villa hit late on Saturday, a beige  corner sofa was virtually untouched, but debris had caved in on  other striped upholstered chairs. The blasts had been heard  across the city late on Saturday.
A table football machine stood outside in the garden in a  wealthy residential area of Tripoli. Glass and debris covered  the lawns and what appeared to be an unexploded missile lay in  one corner.
There was no immediate NATO reaction, nor was any  independent confirmation of the deaths possible. The appearance  of an assassination attempt against Gaddafi could draw  criticism.
It appeared to be the second NATO strike near to Gaddafi in  24 hours. A missile struck near the television station early on  Saturday when the Libyan leader was making an address in which  he said he would never step down and offered talks to rebels.
Benghazi rebels, who control a vast swathe of the east of  the country, insist they cannot trust Gaddafi.

“FIGHT AND FIGHT”
Rifle fire and car horns rang out in the rebels’ eastern  capital of Benghazi as news of the attack spread.
“The leader himself is in good health. He wasn’t harmed,”  Ibrahim said. “His wife is also in good health.
“This was a direct operation to assassinate the leader of  this country. This is not permitted by international law. It is  not permitted by any moral code or principle.”
The announcement of the attack was made live on Libyan state  television and Tripoli residents began to fire small arms into  the air.
U.S. White House press secretary Jay Carney said the White  House was aware of Libyan media reports Gaddafi’s son had been  killed and was monitoring the situation.
Ibrahim said Gaddafi’s youngest son, Saif Al-Arab, had been  killed in the attack. Saif al-Arab, 29, is one of Gaddafi’s less  prominent sons, with a limited role in the power structure.  Ibrahim described him as a student who had studied in Germany.
Gaddafi’s daughter was killed in a U.S. airstrike in 1986,  ordered after a bomb attack on a West Berlin discotheque killed  two U.S. servicemen. Washington linked Tripoli to the attack.
“We will fight and fight if we have to,” Ibrahim said. “The  leader offered peace to NATO yesterday and NATO rejected it.”
Fighting in Libya’s civil war, which grew from protests for  greater political freedom that have spread across the Arab  world, has reached stalemate in recent weeks with neither side  capable of achieving a decisive blow.
Libyan forces had reached the gates of Benghazi last month  when Gaddafi appeared on television declaring he would crush the  rebellion, showing “no pity, no mercy”. Days later the United  Nations passed its resolution allowing the air strikes and  saving the rebels from defeat.