Colonel Gaddafi’s son ’killed in attack on Tripoli barracks’

Mtoday news / Mail

# Claims sixth son Khamis, leader of crack loyalist unit, died of burn wounds

# Gaddafi’s whereabouts remain unknown after attack on his compound after his promises of a ’long war’

# Rebels say Gaddafi’s men have been using civilians as human shields

# RAF Tornado turned back when it was realised residents were in danger

# William Hague refuses to say if Gaddafi was a target of aerial bombardments

# US Defence Secretary Robert Gates says getting rid of Gaddafi is ’unwise’

# UN Secretary-General clarifies support for air attacks but not ground troops

# Cameron tells Commons air strikes stopped assault on Benghazi



Khamis Gaddafi: Libyan officials have denied that the 27-year-old has been killed by a kamikaze Libyan pilot at a barracks

Colonel Gaddafi suffered a massive personal setback today when one of his sons was allegedly killed in a suicide air mission on his barracks.

Khamis, 27, who runs the feared Khamis Brigade that has been prominent in its role of attacking rebel-held areas, is said to have died on Saturday night.

A Libyan air force pilot crashed his jet into the Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli in a kamikaze attack, Algerian TV reported following an unsubstantiated claim by an anti-Gaddafi media organisation.

Khamis is alleged to have died of burns in hospital. The regime denied the reports.

It was claimed he died in the same compound hit by RAF cruise missiles hit by coalition forces last night.

Loyalists have been photographed with shrapnel from the missile that struck the building and throughout the day there has been no information on Gaddafi’s whereabouts.

 

 

Air strike: SAS units have carried out secret reconnaissance missions to provide up-to-date information on the Libyan armed forces

Libyan state TV has claimed that 48 people were killed in the weekend attacks, causing friction between the west and the Arab world but the Ministry of Defence said it wasn’t aware of civilian casualties.

But it exposed fractures between the U.S. and British positions, with U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates saying getting rid of Gaddafi would be unwise while the UK refuses to rule out any course of action.




A rebel fighter points his gun at a suspected Gaddafi supporter as other rebels try to protect him




A suspected Gaddafi supporter is captured by rebel fighters on a road between Benghazi and Ajdabiyah earlier today

As David Cameron took to the floor of the House of Commons today to justify the actions, Downing Street emphasised its legal position this afternoon saying there was "a clear and unequivocal legal basis for deployment of UK forces and military assets to achieve the resolution’s objectives".

The Chief of the Defence Staff’s Strategic Communications Officer Major General John Lorimer said: ’We are satisfied that our attacks and those of our partners have been highly effective in degrading the Libyan air defence and command and control capability.’

Meanwhile, Gaddafi has ordered his troops to round up civilians from nearby towns to be used as human shields towns to avoid targets being hit by allied forces, it was claimed today.

A rebel spokesman in Misrata, the only big rebel stronghold in western Libya, said that residents were being bussed there from nearby towns, but those reports could not be independently verified.

Snipers were posted on rooftops, shooting anyone that came within range while armed pro-Gaddafi forces had entered the city dressed in civilian cloths to try and mix in.

The spokesman known only as Hassan said: ’The Gaddafi forces are forcing people from Zawiyat al Mahjoub and Al Ghiran out of their houses and giving them Gaddafi’s pictures and the (official Libyan) green flag to chant for Gaddafi.

’They are bringing them to Misrata so they can enter the city and control it by using the civilians as human shields because they know we are not going to shoot woman and children and old people.’

The accounts show a change in tactics from Gaddafi’s forces in a bid to avoid Western airstrikes.

Libyan state TV said that ’supporters’ were converging on airports to act as human shields.



Surveying the damage: Libyan army soldiers stand amid the wreckage of the administration building inside Bab Al-Aziziyah, Gaddafi’s heavily fortified compound in Tripoli where 300 people were reported to be at the time of the attack

 

Cruise missiles hit Gaddafi’s compound, reducing an administrative building about 150 metres away from his tents. It is not known where the dictator was at the time of the bombing and his whereabouts remained a mystery this morning.
Air assaults over the weekend by the allied forces rained Tomahawk cruise missiles and satellite guided bombs on his air air defences, severely impacting on the leader’s air defences.

British, US and French planes also hit tanks heading towards the rebel capital, Benghazi about 12 miles south of the city.

Human shields? People are reported to have been shipped to key locations in order to deter allied forces from attacking

 

Tornado GR4 aircrafts taking off from RAF Marham earlier today on their way to Libya

Two pilots of a B-2 bomber flew for 25 hours on the 12,000 mile round trip to bomb Gaddafi targets