London - For a quarter of a century, Colonel Gaddafi claimed that his adopted baby daughter Hana was killed in a US airstrike.
The dictator even set up a shrine to the six-month-old infant in his Tripoli compound, with replica American missiles and furniture preserved behind glass screens.
On Friday, however, it appeared that it was all a ruse to whip up hatred against the West and win sympathy from ordinary Libyans.
Documents and photographs found in the compound suggest that far from perishing in the 1986 attack, Hana is alive - and working as a doctor.
She studied medicine in Tripoli and four years ago took English classes at the British Council in the Libyan capital, for which she received an A grade.
An examination paper from a Libyan medical facility was written in Arabic and signed “Hana Muammar Gaddafi”. There was a passport photograph of a young woman thought to be Hana, along with pictures of her with Gaddafi’s blood daughter Aisha. One room in the compound appeared to have been occupied by Hana, complete with Sex and the City DVD box set, pop CDs featuring the Backstreet Boys and even cellulite treatments.
On shelves which contained medical textbooks there were also photographs of a woman in her mid 20s wearing medical clothing.
Earlier this year the German newspaper Die Welt reported that Hana was a doctor who worked for the country’s health ministry.
The paper told how she was a powerful figure within the Libyan medical profession - and had even used her status to block the careers and promotions of colleagues. It added that “several hospitals were under her guidance”. She spoke fluent English and regularly travelled to London on shopping trips.
The 1986 airstrike, ordered by President Ronald Reagan, was in retaliation for a Berlin nightclub bombing by Libyan agents in which two US soldiers died. - Daily Mail