AhlulBayt News Agency

source : Aljazeera
Wednesday

10 August 2011

7:30:00 PM
258874

Libyan TV shows footage of 'Khamis Gaddafi' + PIC

Despite reports that Khamis was killed in a NATO air strike, recent footage appears to show him visiting local hospital.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Libyan state television has shown what it said was footage of Muammar Gaddafi's son Khamis visiting people wounded in an air attack east of Tripoli.

Rebels had said last week that Khamis had been killed. The government had denied rebel claims that Khamis, commander of one of Gaddafi's most loyal and best-equipped units, had been killed by a NATO air strike near Zlitan.

Libyan TV said the footage was recorded on Tuesday. If genuine, it would be the first visual proof that Khamis was still alive.

Wearing a military uniform and an orange beret and bearing a striking resemblance to Khamis, a man was heard chatting to people the network said were wounded earlier on Tuesday in a NATO air strike on farmhouses near Zlitan.

The government said 85 civilians were killed in the attack. NATO said it hit a legitimate military target and was investigating the incident.

"They bombed the house. You mean you did not expect to be bombed," Khamis could be heard asking a woman lying in a hospital bed.

Earlier, state television showed the charred bodies of at least three children who were allegedly killed by a NATO strike on Monday night in the village of Majar, about 150km east of the capital, Tripoli.

Majar is near Zlitan, where NATO forces have been mounting attacks on troops loyal to Gaddafi.

It also showed wounded women and children being treated in a hospital.

The Libyan government announced three days of mourning for the victims, according to state television.

Mussa Ibrahim, the Libyan government spokesman, said: "After the first three bombs dropped at around 21:00 GMT on Monday, many residents of the area ran to the bombed houses to try to save their loved ones."

"Three more bombs struck. Thirty-three children, 32 women and 20 men from 12 families were killed in the massacre," Mussa told reporters on an organised visit.

NATO said overnight air strikes near Zlitan in western Libya were "legitimate" and that it had no evidence that the bombs killed 85 villagers.

"We do not have evidence of civilian casualties at this stage," Colonel Roland Lavoie, the NATO spokesman for the alliance's Libya campaign, said at a video conference held at its Naples headquarters.

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