LATEST UPDATE: The Libyan State, apparently bothered by questions as to the the veracity of their statements that Saif el-Arab Gaddafi and three grandchildren had been slain by NATO, showed the shrouded bodies of the alleged deceased on state TV, as shown in the video below. However, the faces of the corpses were not shown, nor any other identifying characteristics, so non-state media can still not corroborate Libyan government claims.
UPDATE:
As of 3:30 PM GMT, Libyan authorities have still neither released verifiable photos or shown the remains of anyone killed in the NATO air strike described below. Nor has Colonel Gaddafi made a public appearance. This has all fueled skepticism in various quarters as to the veracity of the Gaddafi regime's claims.
However, angry pro-Gaddafi supporters in Tripoli have taken to the streets anyway in mobs that have physically attacked UN offices, the British embassy and the Italian embassy. Britain has expelled the Libyan ambassador for Libya's failure to protect its Tripoli embassy.
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Around 8:00 pm Libyan time (6:00 GMT), journalists in Tripoli said they heard two or three loud blasts to the West. Some two hours later, foreign media were taken to what journalists described as a residential site that had been heavily damaged in what certainly looked like a missile attack. In fact there was an unexploded missile lying in the debris, but it was covered with dust and no markings were visible.
According to the NY Times:
The government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi said he survived an airstrike in Tripoli late Saturday night that killed one of his sons and three grandchildren, in the sharpest intensification yet of the NATO air campaign intended to pressure the Libyan leader from power.
The son, Seif al-Arab Muammar el-Qaddafi, 29, and the grandchildren, all said to be younger than 12, were possibly the first confirmed casualties in the airstrikes on the Libyan capital. And while the deaths could not be independently verified, the campaign against Libya's most densely populated areas raised new questions about how broadly NATO is interpreting its United Nations mandate to protect civilians.
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