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Kadafi’s son Mutassim among those reported killed in Surt

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REPORTING FROM BEIRUT -- Members of slain Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi’s inner circle were also captured or killed in the fall of his hometown Thursday, according to fighters loyal to the provisional government.

Kadafi’s son and former national security advisor, Mutassim, was shot in the neck and killed, according to the military command in Misurata, whose fighters led the weeks-long offensive against Surt, the former leader’s hometown.

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Also killed Thursday, the command said, were Kadafi’s former defense minister, Abu Bakr Younis Jabr, and two of Jabr’s sons.

PHOTOS: Moammar Kadafi | 1942 - 2011

Another Kadafi son, Seif Islam, was wounded in the leg and was being held in a hospital northwest of Surt, a member of Libya’s Transitional National Council government told the Associated Press.

Seif Islam was once considered Kadafi’s heir apparent. Previous reports had suggested that he escaped from the city of Bani Walid, a former Kadafi desert stronghold that was overrun a few days ago.

Ahmed Ibrahim, a longtime Kadafi aide, and Mansour Dao, Kadafi’s security chief, were also captured in Surt and being transported to Misurata, 150 miles to the west, the command said.

Dao was said to have fled to neighboring Niger last month with a convoy of former regime supporters. It was unclear whether he later returned to Surt or never went to Niger.

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Kadafi’s body was also reportedly brought to Misurata on Thursday. The fate of Musa Ibrahim, Kadafi’s former spokesman, was also unknown, though rumors were circulating that he had been captured.

Before Thursday’s action, two other Kadafi sons had been reported killed. Khamis Kadafi, who commanded special forces, died in fighting in August in the town of Tarhouna, according to a pro-Kadafi radio station based in Syria. Seif Arab was reported killed in a NATO airstrike in April in Tripoli.

Another son, Saadi, a former professional soccer player, has taken refuge in Niger, the government there has confirmed. Two other sons, Mohammed and Hannibal, fled to Algeria, along with their sister, Aisha, and Moammar Kadafi’s second wife, Safiya, Algerian authorities have said. Several Kadafi grandchildren accompanied them.

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-- Patrick J. McDonnell

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