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Gadhafi's youngest son killed in NATO airstrike

BENGHAZI, Libya -- A NATO airstrike Saturday night killed the youngest son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and three of his grandsons at his son's home in Tripoli, the Libyan government said.

NATO hadn't confirmed late Saturday that it carried out the airstrike that killed Seif al-Arab Gadhafi, 29. Regime officials said that Moammar Gadhafi and his wife were visiting the home when it was struck, but both were unharmed.

Gadhafi's youngest son's death comes one day after the Libyan leader appeared on state television calling for talks with NATO to end the airstrikes, which have been hitting Tripoli and other Gadhafi strongholds since last month. Gadhafi suggested there was room for negotiation, but he vowed to stay in Libya.

Western officials have been divided in recent weeks over whether Gadhafi is a legitimate military target under the United Nations Security Council resolution that authorized the air campaign. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last week that NATO was "not targeting Gadhafi specifically" but that his command-and-control facilities - including a facility inside his sprawling Tripoli compound that was hit with airstrikes last Monday - were legitimate targets.
The Pentagon wouldn't confirm the airstrike late Saturday.

The Obama administration is said to believe that killing Gadhafi under the current conditions would exceed the U.N. mandate, which calls for airstrikes to protect civilians.
U.S. officials rejected an assertion last month by Gates' British counterpart, Liam Fox, who said that assassinating Gadhafi was "potentially a possibility." British Prime Minister David Cameron said that coalition forces didn't have the legal authority to do so.

The apparent NATO airstrike excited rebels, who thus far have not been able to break the leader's hold on the capital, Tripoli.

In Benghazi, the rebel capital, the city erupted into revelry that sounded much like warfare. Residents set off bombs and explosives, shot rounds into the air and honked their horns. But the signals of joy were clear: Amid the sounds were cheers from residents who ran out into the streets to celebrate even as fireballs shot up into the sky.

Meanwhile, on Libyan state television, commentators mourned Seif al-Arab and spoke of all the ways the regime would survive what they described as a unjust act.

Seif al-Arab was considered the least dangerous of Gadhafi's immediate family. Seif al-Arab is not Seif al-Islam, another of Gadhafi's sons and heir apparent to his regime up until the uprising began here two months ago.

A 2009 U.S. State Department cable released by WikiLeaks said that Seif al-Arab "reportedly spends most of his time in Munich, where he is involved in ill-defined business pursuits and spends much of his time partying."

(Nancy Youssef reported from Benghazi, Libya. Shashank Bengali reported from Tunis, Tunisia.)

www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/30/2194747/gadhafis-youngest-son-killed-in
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www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/04/30/libya.gadhafi.son.killed/index.htm
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