Tripoli dismisses reports of Gaddafi's son's death - agency

RIA Novosti

16:15 05/08/2011

MOSCOW, August 5 (RIA Novosti) - Libyan authorities dismissed on Friday reports that Muammar Gaddafi's younger son Khamis was killed in a NATO airstrike, Reuters reported.

Earlier on Friday Libyan rebels said Khamis al-Gaddafi was killed during an overnight NATO airstrike on a military command center in the western Libyan town of Zliten.

"It's false news. They invented the news about Khamis Gaddafi in Zlitan to cover up their killing," a spokesman for Libyan government, Moussa Ibrahim told Reuters in Tripoli.

Ibrahim called the news about Khamis's death "a dirty trick."

Khamis headed Libya's 32nd Brigade, one of Gaddafi's most professional and loyal units, the report said. Thirty-two others were also reported to have been killed in the NATO raid.

Another of Gaddafi's sons, 29-year-old Saif, was falsely reported to have been killed in a NATO airstrike in May. He gave an interview to the New York Times earlier this week.