NATO has found no evidence to support claims by the Libyan government that an airstrike in Tripoli killed Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy’s youngest son and three grandchildren, two military officials said Sunday.
What the Libyan government called a residence — where Khadafy’s son Saif al Arab and three grandchildren lived when the structure was struck Saturday night — was, in fact, a command and control center with a bunker underneath, the NATO and U.S. officials said on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about NATO’s findings.
The officials also rejected suggestions that the attack targeted Khadafy.
Privately, officials at the Pentagon suggested that the regime claimed the deaths to divide an already conflicted international community over its effort here. Russia accused the Western alliance Sunday of exceeding its U.N. mandate of protecting Libyan civilians with the strike.
By midday Sunday, there was smoke coming out of the Italian Embassy building in Tripoli, and the British Embassy also reported being under attack. The vandalized embassies are empty, and nobody was reported injured.
