Citing spies operating among Mr. Qaddafi’s ranks, Mohammed Zawawi, a spokesman for revolutionary militia groups, told AFP that Mr. Khamis was confirmed to be among the dead.
But the claim was denied by government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim, who said “the news about the killing of Mr. Khamis by a NATO air strike are very dirty lies to cover the murder of civilians in the peaceful city.”
Mr. Khamis is Head of Libya’s 32nd Brigade, one of Colonel Qaddafi’s most professional and loyal units, which has been fighting in Zlitan, which lies between the rebel-held city of Misrata and the capital Tripoli.
Meanwhile, Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaaim said that rebel forces had sabotaged a pipeline in the Jebel Nefussa region, a mountainous area southeast of Tripoli.
“The rebels turned off a valve and poured cement over it,” he said, adding that this would lead to a shortage of electricity in the capital as oil and gas were used at the Zawiyah refinery to generate power.
Mr. Kaaim said food and medicine supplies were spoiling in the capital due to long power cuts. Tripoli residents complained last Thursday of extensive blackouts and an acute shortage of gas canisters.
NATO “wants to create a humanitarian crisis in Libya while the aim of its mission is to protect civilians,” Mr. Kaaim said.
Source: Al Arabiya; AFP
