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Libya loyalists demand revenge after Gadhafi's son killed in NATO strike
Libyan officials said 29-year-old Seif al-Arab was killed late Saturday along with three of Gadhafi's grandchildren when NATO bombed the family's compound in Tripoli.
Mourners shouted for revenge Monday as some 2,000 people in the Libyan capital greeted a funeral procession carrying Muammar Gadhafi's second youngest son, who officials say was killed in a NATO airstrike.
The crowd jostled to get close to Seif al-Arab Gadhafi's coffin as it was taken out of a black hearse and placed near a cemetery in Tripoli. Some people prayed, some flashed victory signs and others shouted at the top of their lungs.
Revenge, revenge for you Libya, shouted the crowd around the coffin, which was draped in the green Libyan flag and was topped with a wreath of flowers that were wilting in the heat. We demand revenge for our martyrs.
Libyan officials said 29-year-old Seif al-Arab was killed late Saturday along with three of Gadhafi's grandchildren when NATO bombed the family's compound in Tripoli. Gadhafi and his wife were present during the attack but were unharmed, they said.
Some countries criticized the strike, saying it exceeded the UN mandate of protecting civilians in Libya. The UN approved the implementation of a no-fly zone in Libya in March after Gadhafi used aircraft to attack protesters who demanded his ouster.
The South African government issued a statement Monday saying attacks on leaders and officials can only result in the escalation of tensions and conflicts on all sides and make future reconciliation difficult.
The most recent barrage came after Gadhafi forces brought their tanks to the western gates of Misrata, said Libyan activist Rida al-Montasser. The shelling started up early Monday morning and only paused with the threat of NATO airstrikes, he said.
Only when we heard the NATO planes flying over, the shelling paused, said al-Montasser.
NATO aircraft have carried out multiple airstrikes to try to stop Gadhafi's siege, but alliance officials have said they have found it difficult to target forces hidden in Misrata's urban environment.
Even as the shelling paused Monday, fear spread through Misrata that Gadhafi forces were preparing to use chemical weapons in their fight to defeat the rebels, who control eastern Libya and have demanded the Libyan leader step down.
We heard like everybody else that the soldiers are distributing gas masks in the nearby city of Zlitan, said al-Montasser.
The rumors of Gadhafi forces distributing gas masks could not be independently confirmed.
A UN watchdog indicated in February, soon after the Libyan revolution started, that it was unlikely that Gadhafi would use chemical weapons because he had no weapon to deliver such a payload. Gadhafi destroyed the aerial bombs as part of a 2003 reconciliation deal with the West, said the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. He also destroyed more than 50 percent of his stockpile for producing mustard gas, it said.
U.S. and British intelligence agencies reportedly have been concerned that Gadhafi may not have declared all his munitions and may have held some back, but no evidence has surfaced to support those fears.
Experts say conventional warheads cannot easily be adapted to chemical warfare. The chemical agent is in liquid form, must be kept stable at various temperatures, then converted to an aerosol and dispersed over a wide are12 people, raising the two-day death toll to 23.
Also Sunday, vandals burned the British and Italian embassies and a UN office in Tripoli, hours after the NATO strike that killed Gadhafi's son.
Turkey temporarily closed its embassy in Tripoli on Monday due to deteriorating security, and its staff traveled to Tunisia, said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
Libya loyalists demand revenge after Gadhafi's son killed in NATO strike - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News
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