Libyan rebel forces reported a NATO strike on an operations centre in the western city of Zlitan last night has killed Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s youngest son Khamis Gaddafi, along with 32 others.

The youngest of seven of Muammar Gaddafi’s sons – a commander in the Libyan army forces- was among the 32 people killed by the NATO raid on the city of Zlitan located between rebel-controlled Mistrata and Tripoli.

Citing spies operating among the ranks of forces loyal to the Libyan leader Gaddafi, a spokesman for a revolutionary militia group told that Khamis Gaddafi was confirmed to be among the dead.

Nato attack on Libyan town : Gaddafi son killed

“Overnight there was an attack by NATO aircrafts on the Gaddafi operations room in Zlitan and 32 Gaddafi troops killed. One of them is Khamis Gaddafi,” informed Mohammed Zawawi, a spokesman for the United Revolutionary Forces.

Khamis Gaddafi, who has long led pro-government militia fighters, was stated to be commanding the battle for Zlitan – a Gaddafi bastion that has halted the rebel advance on capital Tripoli. He commanded Libya’s 32nd Brigade and graduated from the military academy in Tripoli and the Frunze Military Academy is Moscow, Russia. As a young child, he suffered severe head wounds during the bombing by American warplanes of Tripoli in 1986. The confirmation of his deatht could not be immediately issued.

Nato air strike on Zlitan : Gaddafi’s youngest son confirmed dead by Libyan rebels

The strike appears to have come just hours after Tripoli took journalists on an escorted tour of the centre of Zlitan, an effort to belie rebel claims the town was under attack.

Fighters from the rebel enclave of Misrata, 60 kilometres to the east, have been reporting this week they had made progress in Zlitan, a strategic coastal town on the road to Tripoli, which was in Gaddafi force’s command. That can change now, since the commanding officer Gaddafi son Khamis is now dead, the rebels claim.

 

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