LIBYA: Moammar Kadafi’s son Khamis reportedly killed in airstrike

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Khamis Kadafi, the youngest son of longtime Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, has been killed in a NATO airstrike, Sky News reported.

The British network said a man claiming to be Khamis Kadafi’s bodyguard said the younger Kadafi was in a Toyota Land Cruiser that was hit by a missile fired from a NATO Apache helicopter. A rebel official told the network that they were close to confirming that Khamis Kadafi died Saturday during fighting with rebels near Tarhuna, about 50 miles southeast of Tripoli.

Khamis Kadafi, a Russian-trained military officer, commanded an elite battalion dedicated to protecting his father.

Human Rights Watch said Monday that his Khamis Brigade executed detainees last week at a warehouse near Tripoli, which later burned down. “Sadly, this is not the first gruesome report of what appears to be the summary execution of detainees in the final days of the Kadafi government’s control of Tripoli,” Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement Monday. “These merciless murders took place in the midst of Ramadan and those responsible should be brought to justice and punished.” An inspector from the human rights group reported seeing the charred remains of 45 bodies.

Human Rights Watch said its inspector interviewed a survivor who said that the building held 153 detainees, including 125 civilians. One building in the compound had “32nd Brigade” spray-painted on a wall, a reference to the Khamis Brigade, according to the New York-based human rights group.

-- Molly Hennessy-Fiske

Top photo: A mural of Moammar Kadafi is seen at a parade ground at the Khamis Brigade headquarters on Monday in Tripoli. Credit: Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images

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-- Molly Hennessy-Fiske