Saturday, April 30, 2011

Missile Strike Kills Gaddafi's Son and Three Grandchildren: NATO Rejects Libya's Call for Cease Fire

Robert Stacy McCain's got some coverage, "BREAKING: Libya Spokesman Says NATO Strike Killed 3 of Qaddafi’s Grandsons UPDATE: Attack Also Reportedly Kills Qaddafi’s Youngest Son, Saif al-Arab, 29."

And at Wall Street Journal, "Gadhafi Survives NATO Missile Strike That Killed Son":

TRIPOLI, Libya – A missile fired by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization struck a house where Col. Moammar Gadhafi was staying Saturday, missing the Libyan leader but killing his youngest son and three young grandchildren, a government spokesman said.

Col. Gadhafi and his wife were in the home of their 29-year-old son, Saif al-Arab Gadhafi, when the missile crashed through the one-story house in a Tripoli residential neighborhood, according to the spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim.

The young Mr. Gadhafi was the seventh son of the Libyan leader.

"The leader himself is in good health; he wasn't harmed," Mr. Ibrahim told a news conference early Sunday. "His wife is also in good health; she wasn't harmed, [but] other people were injured."

"This was a direct operation to assassinate the leader of this country," the spokesman added. "It seems intelligence was leaked. They knew about him being there, or they expected him. But the target was very clear."

Seif al-Arab "was playing and talking with his father and mother and his nieces and nephews and other visitors when he was attacked for no crimes committed," Mr. Ibrahim said.

Three loud explosions had been heard in Tripoli on Saturday evening as jets flew overhead. Volleys of anti-aircraft fire rang out after the first two strikes.

Later, journalists who were taken to the home, inside a walled compound in the city's Gharour neighborhood, found its main one-story structure destroyed and two other buildings heavily damaged. The blast had torn down the main building and left a huge pile of rubble and twisted metal on the ground.

It was unclear how anyone inside could have survived.
More at the link above, and at both New York Times and Los Angeles Times. (Via Memeorandum.)

America's enemies at Firedoglake are not pleased.

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