TRIPOLI, Libya - May 2, 2011 - Angry crowds went on the rampage in Tripoli yesterday, burning foreign embassies and forcing the UN to evacuate its foreign staff after a NATO bombing that the regime claimed left four members of Moammar Qaddafi's family dead.
The fallout from the air attack forced NATO onto the defensive and prompted its leaders and David Cameron to claim that the attack was in line with the UN Security Council resolution to target the regime's "war-making machine".
The Libyans claim the attack, which allegedly killed one of the Libyan leader's least known and least politically active sons, as well as three grandchildren, was a failed assassination attempt on Colonel Qaddafi. Russia, which abstained in the Security Council resolution that paved the way for air attacks in Libya, led the criticism of the raid, saying it raised "serious doubts" over NATO assurances that the allies were not targeting the Qaddafi family.
As mobs launched revenge attacks on international targets in the capital, the UN airlifted its international staff out of the Libyan capital and the British and Italian missions were left in flames. Britain expelled Libya's ambassador in London in response to the burning of its embassy, which was closed in February. UN officials confirmed that its Tripoli office was also ransacked and Italy said a number of other foreign missions had been attacked.
There has been no independent confirmation of claims that Colonel Qaddafi's son, Saif al-Arab, 29, or any of the Libyan leader's grandchildren, all aged under 13, were killed in the blast at a residential compound in Tripoli on Saturday. However, television images showed the bodies of four victims of the air strike.
The Tripoli government's spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, said that Saif al-Arab "was playing and talking with his father and mother and his nieces and nephews" when NATO bombs hit. He said that Colonel Qaddafi escaped unhurt. The incident recalled the controversy over the U.S. bombing of Tripoli in 1986 in which the Libyan leader's adopted daughter was reportedly killed.
Reporters allowed to visit the scene with yesterday described a single-storey building with a demolished ceiling and a deep crater revealing a ruined basement. Video games and cooking pots lay scattered around, amid twisted metal and pieces of concrete.
A senior former Libyan diplomat, who has resigned from the country's diplomatic service but has yet to come out openly against the regime, said, "There is anger about these deaths, and a lot of the protests have not been organized by Qaddafi's people, they are spontaneous. Qaddafi will use this for propaganda and NATO is playing into his hands."
NATO confirmed that it had targeted a "command and control" center but denied targeting individuals and pointed out that the alleged deaths had not been confirmed. However, the alliance has refused to specify just which military operations were being planned from the site, and the deaths, especially those of the children, if confirmed, will not only lead to strong criticism from countries such as Russia and China, but also reinforce the unease felt by some member states, such as Turkey and Greece, about the direction of the air campaign.
Moscow has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in Libya and negotiations without preconditions, but has stopped short of raising the matter at the UN Security Council.
While complaining that NATO attacks were flouting international law yesterday, Tripoli renewed its assault on opposition outposts in western Libya and made a push towards Ajdabiya in the east.
