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Breaking News: Gaddafi son killed in NATO air strike

Posted: April 30, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Foreign Affairs, Libya | Tags: , |26 Comments

from the BBC:

A Nato air strike in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, has killed the son of the Libyan leader, Colonel Gadaffi, a government spokesman has said.

Colonel Gaddafi himself was in the house which was hit by the strike, the spokesman added, but he was unharmed.

His son Saif al-Arab was killed, as well as three of the Libyan leader’s grandsons.

Saif al-Arab, aged 29, was the youngest of Muammar Gaddafi six sons …

also from the BBC:

Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said the villa was attacked “with full power.”

“The attack resulted in the martyrdom of brother Saif al-Arab Muammar 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.” Col Gaddafi’s wife was also unharmed, he said.

“This was a direct operation to assassinate the leader of this country,” the spokesman added.

26 Comments on “Breaking News: Gaddafi son killed in NATO air strike”

  1. Branjor says:
    April 30, 2011 at 6:15 pm

    Well, I guess it was inevitable that some member of the Gadaffi family would be killed sooner or later.
    Too bad Obama and NATO waited so long to intervene in Libya. If it had been done sooner, Gadaffi might have been gone by now. As it is, he’s hanging on and on.

  2. Wonk the Vote says:
    April 30, 2011 at 6:16 pm

    I was just coming to post this. CNN is saying 3 of Gaddafi’s grandchildren were killed too…

    I see that’s in the BBC report as well.

  3. bostonboomer says:
    April 30, 2011 at 7:36 pm

    Another Gaddafi son was reported to have been killed awhile back and it turned out not to be true. Maybe this time it’s for real.

    • bostonboomer says:
      April 30, 2011 at 7:38 pm

      Saif is the son who was supposedly negotiating with the Brits because he wanted to “get rid” of his father. How convenient for Moammar G.

      • bostonboomer says:
        April 30, 2011 at 8:01 pm

        Report in March: Gaddafi son killed in kamikaze pilot attack on barracks’

      • bostonboomer says:
        April 30, 2011 at 8:05 pm

        From The Independent:

        The information could not be independently verified, but, if accurate, would be a considerable step on from the terms of the United Nations Resolution 1973, which authorised action to “to protect civilians and civilian populated areas”.

        Leaders of member states participating in the coalition have frequently dodged the issue of whether Col Gaddafi would be or should be directly targeted. Neither the Foreign Office nor the Ministry of Defence were last night available for any questions on the strike. There are bound to be serious questions raised about who authorised the strike which would have been, effectively, an assassination attempt, and which reportedly killed children.

        [….]

        Earlier reports said the attack was on a compound which includes the state television station, and came as Col Gaddafi made a rambling pre-dawn address to the nation. His officials were swift to condemn the attack as an attempt to kill their leader, which came, they pointed out, just as he was offering not only yet another “ceasefire” but also talks with Nato.

      • dakinikat says:
        April 30, 2011 at 8:08 pm

        yeah … this sounds “convenient”

      • bostonboomer says:
        April 30, 2011 at 8:11 pm

        I’m not saying it didn’t happen, but there have been a lot of false reports from Gaddafi people. I’d like more evidence than Moussa Ibrihim’s word. He lied plenty about Iman al-Obeidi and her whereabouts.

      • dakinikat says:
        April 30, 2011 at 8:13 pm

        and speaking of which …

        AJELive AJELive
        Our correspondents in #Libya say many there think #Gaddafi has fabricated the report of the death of his son http://aje.me/lFgr4j
        23 seconds ago Favorite Retweet Reply

      • bostonboomer says:
        April 30, 2011 at 8:50 pm

        Just as I suspected!

      • Minkoff Minx says:
        April 30, 2011 at 9:50 pm

        BB, isn’t this the son that gave that speech where he kept pointing his finger?

        Yup, I was right…see the picture at this link:

        Moammar Khadafy survives missile strike that kills youngest son and three grandchildren: spokesman

  4. Wonk the Vote says:
    April 30, 2011 at 8:32 pm

    From AJE:

    3:19am

    Al Jazeera’s Sue Turton, in Benghazi, says there are unconfirmed reports that Gaddafi’s forces have launched what could be a retaliation strike after the reported death of his son in Tripoli. Rebels say the town of Jalo, near Ajdabiya, has been shelled and that there are some casualties.

    • Wonk the Vote says:
      April 30, 2011 at 8:33 pm

      2:05am

      Al Jazeera’s Sue Turton, in Benghazi, says there are many voices suggesting that the report that Gaddafi’s son has been killed may not be true, that it might be a move to gain sympathy.

      2:08am

      Our correpsondent Anita McNaught commented on the reported attack:

      What exactly happened in the compound tonight we don’t know. What the Gaddafi family seems to be saying is that this was an assassination attempt. I’m not sure NATO would want to be caught trying to do something like that.

      “On the other hand, mistakes have been made, on the other hand, there are clearly many agendas working in this conflict and what the international alliance say they want and what they actually might actually be prepared to do could be two different things.”

  5. Branjor says:
    April 30, 2011 at 9:00 pm

    Apparently there is a history of made up lies about Gaddafi offspring being killed.

  6. jawbone says:
    April 30, 2011 at 9:40 pm

    NYTimes says the dead son in 29 years old and lived mainly in Munich.

    LINK

    These are apparently still alleged deaths

    Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi survived a NATO airstrike on Saturday night that struck a house in Tripoli containing several of his family members and killed his youngest son and three of the colonel’s grandchildren, a Libyan government spokesman announced early Sunday.

    “This was a direct operation to assassinate the leader of this country,” said Moussa Ibrahim, the government spokesman, adding that the airstrike proved that the NATO air campaign “has no moral foundation, no legal foundation and no political foundation.”

    Mr. Ibrahim identified the dead son as Seif al-Arab Muammar el-Qaddafi, 29. He said that Colonel Qaddafi and his wife, who were in the son’s house along with “friends and relatives,” were not wounded in the attack.

    The son who was said to be killed has a lower profile than much of the Qaddafi family. Western officials have said that he made his home in Munich most of the time, and did not seem to play as much of a role in Libya’s everyday affairs as some of his older siblings (including one with a similar name, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi). He has a reputation as a playboy, and the German newspaper Der Spiegel reported in 2007 about an incident in which he was briefly detained by the Munich police after getting into a fight with a nightclub bouncer; no charges were filed.

    But if some family of one of our leaders were “taken out” like that during an assassination attempt, what would our government do?

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