30 April 2011 Last updated at 19:22 ET.A Nato air strike in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, has killed the son of the Libyan leader, Colonel Gaddafi, a government spokesman has said.
TRIPOLI, Libya —
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi survived a NATO missile strike Saturday that killed his youngest son and three grandchildren and wounded friends and relatives, Libya's spokesman said.
Gadhafi and his wife were in the Tripoli house of son Saif al-Arab Gadhafi, 29, when it was hit by at least one missile fired by a NATO
warplane, according to Libyan spokesman Moussa Ibrahim.
Libyan officials took journalists to the one-story house in a wealthy residential neighborhood. Some areas of the roof were caved in, leaving strings of reinforcing steel hanging down among chunks of concrete.
A table football machine stood outside in the garden of the house.
Ibrahim said the villa was attacked "with full power."
"This was a direct operation to assassinate the leader of this country," the spokesman added.
"The leader himself is in good health," Ibrahim said. "He was not harmed. The wife is also in good health."
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi survived a NATO missile strike Saturday that killed his youngest son and three grandchildren and wounded friends and relatives, Libya's spokesman said.
Gadhafi and his wife were in the Tripoli house of son Saif al-Arab Gadhafi, 29, when it was hit by at least one missile fired by a NATO
warplane, according to Libyan spokesman Moussa Ibrahim.Libyan officials took journalists to the one-story house in a wealthy residential neighborhood. Some areas of the roof were caved in, leaving strings of reinforcing steel hanging down among chunks of concrete.
A table football machine stood outside in the garden of the house.
Ibrahim said the villa was attacked "with full power."
"This was a direct operation to assassinate the leader of this country," the spokesman added.
"The leader himself is in good health," Ibrahim said. "He was not harmed. The wife is also in good health."
Saif al-Arab Gadhafi, the colonel's sixth son, had spent much of his time at a German university but had not completed his studies, Ibrahim said.
Saif 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," Ibrahim said.
On Tuesday, British Defense Minister Liam Fox and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters at the Pentagon that that NATO planes were not targeting Gadhafi specifically but would continue to attack his command centers.
Heavy bursts of gunfire were heard in Tripoli after the attack.
Gadhafi had seven sons and one daughter.
The Libyan leader also had an adopted daughter who was killed in a 1986 U.S. airstrike on his Bab al-Aziziya residential compound, which was separate from the area struck on Saturday. That strike came in retaliation for the bombing attack on a German disco in which two U.S. servicemen were killed. The U.S. at the time blamed Libya for the disco blast.
Saif 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," Ibrahim said.
On Tuesday, British Defense Minister Liam Fox and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters at the Pentagon that that NATO planes were not targeting Gadhafi specifically but would continue to attack his command centers.
Heavy bursts of gunfire were heard in Tripoli after the attack.
Gadhafi had seven sons and one daughter.
The Libyan leader also had an adopted daughter who was killed in a 1986 U.S. airstrike on his Bab al-Aziziya residential compound, which was separate from the area struck on Saturday. That strike came in retaliation for the bombing attack on a German disco in which two U.S. servicemen were killed. The U.S. at the time blamed Libya for the disco blast.
Saif's mother is Safiya Farkash, Gadhafi's second wife and a former nurse.
The strike came after Gadhafi early Saturday called for negotiations with NATO powers to end airstrikes on Libya.
"We did not attack them or cross the sea ... why are they attacking us?" Gadhafi said in a live television address. "Let us negotiate with you, the countries that attack us. Let us negotiate," he said, adding that if it was oil the coalition countries were after there was no problem in negotiating contracts.
Gadhafi said he was amenable to a cease-fire but only if it involved all sides and not only his own forces who are fighting against rebels in the east.
Libya "is ready until now to enter a cease-fire ... but a cease-fire cannot be from one side,'' Gadhafi said. "We were the first to welcome a cease-fire and we were the first to accept a cease-fire ... but the crusader NATO attack has not stopped.''
Gadhafi also said: "I'm not leaving my country. No one can force me to leave my country and no one can tell me not to fight for my country."
At the end of his rambling speech, Gadhafi reportedly snagged his microphone while picking up papers and tossed it away.
NATO warplanes bombed a government complex in the Libyan capital Tripoli including the television building as Gadhafi gave the address, Libyan state television said.
"A building adjacent to the Jamahiriya building was bombed during the broadcast of Moammar Gadhafi's speech and that implies a target on the leader of the revolution himself,'' the television said after Gadhafi had finished speaking.
The screen flickered more than once as Gadhafi was speaking.
The NATO strike damaged offices of parliamentary staff and a building officials said housed a commission for children and women.
A policeman at the scene said three people were hurt, one seriously.
A rebel spokesman, Jalal al-Galal, called the cease-fire offer a publicity stunt.
"We don't believe that there is a solution that includes him or any member of his family. So it is well past any discussions. The only solution is for him to depart," he said.
NATO: Attacks must end
NATO said Gadhafi's forces would have to end their attacks on civilians before it considered the cease-fire offer.
A NATO official said Saturday that the alliance wanted to "to see not words but actions."
The official said Gadhafi's regime had announced cease-fires several times before and then continued attacking cities and civilians.
The official, who could not be identified in line with standing regulations, said just hours before Gadhafi proposed the truce, his forces indiscriminately shelled the besieged port city of Misrata, Libya, killing several people.
"All this has to stop, and it has to stop now," the NATO official said, adding that a cease-fire must be "credible and verifiable."
The strike came after Gadhafi early Saturday called for negotiations with NATO powers to end airstrikes on Libya.
"We did not attack them or cross the sea ... why are they attacking us?" Gadhafi said in a live television address. "Let us negotiate with you, the countries that attack us. Let us negotiate," he said, adding that if it was oil the coalition countries were after there was no problem in negotiating contracts.
Gadhafi said he was amenable to a cease-fire but only if it involved all sides and not only his own forces who are fighting against rebels in the east.
Libya "is ready until now to enter a cease-fire ... but a cease-fire cannot be from one side,'' Gadhafi said. "We were the first to welcome a cease-fire and we were the first to accept a cease-fire ... but the crusader NATO attack has not stopped.''
Gadhafi also said: "I'm not leaving my country. No one can force me to leave my country and no one can tell me not to fight for my country."
At the end of his rambling speech, Gadhafi reportedly snagged his microphone while picking up papers and tossed it away.
NATO warplanes bombed a government complex in the Libyan capital Tripoli including the television building as Gadhafi gave the address, Libyan state television said.
"A building adjacent to the Jamahiriya building was bombed during the broadcast of Moammar Gadhafi's speech and that implies a target on the leader of the revolution himself,'' the television said after Gadhafi had finished speaking.
The screen flickered more than once as Gadhafi was speaking.
The NATO strike damaged offices of parliamentary staff and a building officials said housed a commission for children and women.
A policeman at the scene said three people were hurt, one seriously.
A rebel spokesman, Jalal al-Galal, called the cease-fire offer a publicity stunt.
"We don't believe that there is a solution that includes him or any member of his family. So it is well past any discussions. The only solution is for him to depart," he said.
NATO: Attacks must end
NATO said Gadhafi's forces would have to end their attacks on civilians before it considered the cease-fire offer.
A NATO official said Saturday that the alliance wanted to "to see not words but actions."
The official said Gadhafi's regime had announced cease-fires several times before and then continued attacking cities and civilians.
The official, who could not be identified in line with standing regulations, said just hours before Gadhafi proposed the truce, his forces indiscriminately shelled the besieged port city of Misrata, Libya, killing several people.
"All this has to stop, and it has to stop now," the NATO official said, adding that a cease-fire must be "credible and verifiable."
Libya's government took journalists to the site where they said Saif al-Arab Gaddafi was killed
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