Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi speaks during a live speech in this still photo taken from video 30 April 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Libya TV via Reuters TVBy Lin NoueihedTRIPOLI | Sun 1 May 2011, 7: 29 am EDT
TRIPOLI (Reuters)-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi survived a NATO air attack on a house in Tripoli which killed his youngest son Saif al-Arab and three young grandchildren, said a Government spokesman on Sunday.
Libyan officials took journalists to the House, which is hit by at least three missiles. The roof was completely collapsed in places, leaving mangled rods of steel hanging down underneath splintered chunks of concrete.
"What we have now is the law of the jungle," Government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told a press conference. "We think now it is clear to everyone that what happens in Libya has nothing to do with the protection of civilians."
Death is not independently confirmed. But they would certainly heap pressure on NATO--who denies targeting the Gaddafi family--of opponents of the mission who say that it goes beyond the UN mandate to protect civilians.
It would also be the vulnerability of Gaddafi himself.
Fighting in Libya the civil war, which rose from protests for greater political freedom that are scattered throughout the Arab world, has reached stalemate in recent weeks with neither side can achieve a decisive battle.
Ibrahim said Gaddafi the youngest son, Saif al-Arab, was killed in the attack. Saif al-Arab, 29, is one of the less prominent sons Gaddafi, with a limited role in the power structure. Ibrahim described him as a student who had studied in Germany.
The grandchildren slain Benjamins, said Ibrahim.
"The leader himself is in good health. He was not harmed. His wife is also in good health.
"This was a direct effect to kill the leader of this country. This is not permitted by international law. It is not allowed by a moral code or principle. "
NATO DENIES GADDAFI TARGET
NATO denied targeting Gaddafi, or his family, but said that air attacks on military targets in the same area of Tripoli as the bombed site seen by reporters had launched.
The Alliance said "NATO remained its precision strikes against Government military installations in Tripoli's night, including striking a known command and control building near Bab al-Azizia shortly after 1800 GMT Saturday night," in a statement.
NATO commander of Libya operations, Canadian Lieutenant-General Charles Bouchard, said that the goal was part of a strategy to rid command centers threaten citizens.
"All NATO targets are military in nature ...We do not target persons, "he said in a statement.
Each appearance of an assassination attempt on Gaddafi is likely to lead to accusations that the British and French-led strikes are the crossing of the provisions of the UN resolution in place to protect the public.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a longtime ally of Gaddafi, called it attempted murder.
"There is no doubt that the order was given to kill Gaddafi. It doesn't matter who else is killed, kill Gaddafi ... a murder, this is a murder, "he said in Caracas.
Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Commission of international affairs in the lower House of the Russian Parliament, Interfax reported: "more and more facts show that the purpose of the anti-Gaddafi Libyan Coalition to physically destroy."
It calls upon the Western coalition to a quick evaluation of the actions.
"I am aware of unconfirmed media reports that some of the Gaddafi family members may have killed," of NATO Bouchard said. "We deplore all loss of life."
British Prime Minister David Cameron said refused to comment on what he called "unconfirmed report" about members of the Gaddafi family is killed in the NATO strike.
But he told BBC television: "the policy of NATO and the Alliance is absolutely clear. It is in accordance with the UN resolution 1973 and it is about preventing a loss of civilian life by focusing on Gaddafi of war-making machine, so that is of course tanks and cannons, rocket launchers, but also command and control as well. "
SECOND CLOSE CALL IN 24 hours
Gaddafi, who was seized in a 1969 coup d ' état to power, fighting a revolt by rebels seized much of eastern Libya. He describes the rebels as religious extremists and Western agents who want to check out the oil from Libya.
Within part of the villa hit late on Saturday, a beige Bank was virtually untouched, but debris had admitted on some striped upholstered chairs. The blasts were heard across the city.
A table football machine stood outside in the garden in a prosperous residential area. Glass and debris covers the lawns and what looked like a unexploded rocket lay in a corner.
It appeared to be the second NATO strike near Gaddafi in 24 hours. A rocket struck near a tv station early on Saturday when the Libyan leader was making an address in which he said that he would never step down and conversations offered to rebels.
The rebels say they don't trust Gaddafi. The last few days have seen fierce bombardment of rebel outposts in the West. A rebel in the mountain city of Zintan spokesman Government troops the city with up to 30 powerful Grad rockets has showered late in the evening.
Tripoli also has a sea blockade on the western outpost of Misrata, potentially deprive the rebels of an essential support link to their eastern heartland explained.
Celebratory rifle fire and car horns rang out rebels in the Eastern capital of Benghazi as news of the attack spread.
The announcement of the attack was on State television, which later left hundreds of people around the Gaddafi compound sing life created.
"We will fight and if we have to fight," said Ibrahim. "The leader offered peace to NATO and NATO rejected yesterday."
Gaddafi's daughter was killed in a U.S. air strike in 1986, after a bomb attack on a West Berlin discotheque killed two U.S. soldiers ordered. Washington linked Tripoli to the attack.
(Additional reporting by Tarek Amara and Abdelaziz Boumzar in Dehiba, Deepa Babington and Michael Georgy in Benghazi, Matthew Tostevin in Tunis, Justyna Pawlak in Brussels; Written by Ralph Boulton; Edit by Angus MacSwan)
No comments:
Post a Comment