A Libyan government spokesman on Friday denied reports that Muammar Gaddafi's youngest son, brigade commander Khamis Gaddafi, had been killed in a NATO air strike.
"It's false news. They invented the news about Mr Khamis Gaddafi in Zlitan to cover up their killing," Moussa Ibrahim told Reuters in Tripoli. "This is a dirty trick to cover up their crime in Zlitan and the killing of the al-Marabit family (a Libyan family)."
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Earlier Friday, a rebel spokesman said that a NATO air attack has killed 32 people, among then Muammar Gaddafi's son Khamis, who serves as one of the main commanders of the Libyan leader's military forces.
The rebel spokesman said the air strike took place at Zlitan, a frontline town where some of Gaddafi's most loyal and best equipped troops are making a stand to defend the outskirts of Tripoli, 160 kilometers away.
A NATO official at operations headquarters in Naples said he was aware of the report but could not confirm it.
"We cannot confirm anything right now, because we don't have people on
the ground, but we are trying to find out what we can," he said.
There was no immediate comment from the Tripoli government.
If
confirmed, the death of Khamis Gaddafi would be a severe blow to the
leader's bid to resist a six-month-old NATO-backed uprising and remain
in power.
Khamis is head of Libya's 32nd Brigade, one of
Gaddafi's most professional and loyal units, which has been fighting in
Zlitan, which lies between the rebel-held city of Misrata and the
capital Tripoli.
The Gaddafi government said earlier this year
that a NATO air strike had killed another of Gaddafi's sons, Saif
al-Arab, who had a much lower public profile and no major leadership
role.
Rebels who cleared Gaddafi's forces from Libya's third
largest city of Misrata have been trying for weeks to push westwards and
take Zlitan, which would open the coastal road toward his Tripoli
stronghold.
