NATO airstrike may be what killed Kadafi, alliance official says

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REPORTING FROM WASHINGTON -- Libya’s former leader Moammar Kadafi may have been killed or mortally wounded in a NATO airstrike on two military vehicles at about 8:30 a.m. near Surt, according to a senior NATO officer.

The vehicles were part of a larger convoy and were targeted because they appeared to be directing pro-Kadafi fighters, the officer said.

Asked if NATO had specific intelligence prior to the attack indicating Kadafi was in the convoy, the officer said, “not really … those vehicles seemed to be directing the actions of the others and they were struck. For all we know it could have been a lower-level leader.”

PHOTOS: Moammar Kadafi | 1942 - 2011

There have been conflicting accounts of how Kadafi was killed Thursday. Fighters in Surt said they shot and killed Kadafi when they captured the city after weeks of fighting.

In a statement issued at NATO headquarters in Brussels, the alliance said, ‘NATO aircraft struck two pro-Kadafi force military vehicles which were part of a larger group maneuvering in the vicinity of Surt.’

The ‘armed vehicles were conducting military operations and presented a clear threat to civilians,’ the statement added.

‘Without troops on the ground we are unable to positively identify the presence of any particular individual in these vehicles. It is not NATO policy to target specific individuals.’

NATO has maintained since the bombing campaign began last March that it was not specifically targeting or tracking Kadafi. But it also carried numerous attacks on palaces and other facilities that the leader was known to use, including the large government compound in Tripoli where he lived and had offices.

The Pentagon provided armed Predator drones specifically to improve the alliance’s ability to track and attack senior figures in the regime who it said were threatening civilians by issuing commands to fighters in the field.

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-- David S. Cloud