A television channel loyal to deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Monday confirmed the death of his youngest son as fierce fighting continued in remaining pro-Gaddafi strongholds in the country.
Damascus-based Al Rai television said that Khamis Gaddafi was killed during fighting in Tarhouna, 80 kilometres south of the capital Tripoli, on August 29.
The channel said that his cousin Mohamed Abdullah al-Senousi, the son of Gaddafi's intelligence chief, was killed in the same battle, Al Arabiya reported.
This is the first confirmation of the death of Khamis Gaddafi, coming after several such reports emerged from fighters and the country's ruling National Transitional Council.
Khamis, 28, was the commander of a brigade in the pro-Gaddafi forces, which was said to have been in charge of suppressing protests when they began in early February in the eastern city of Benghazi.
Gaddafi's government had earlier said that NATO attacks on the Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli on April 30 killed his son Saif al-Arab and three grandchildren.
Meanwhile, pro-Gaddafi fighters, who are still carrying out a fierce battle inside the coastal city of Sirte, are using the residents inside the city as human shields, Al Jazeera reported on Monday.
“The fighters are using people who are still inside Sirte as human shields to protect themselves,” a commander of the Libyan rebels told the broadcaster.
The council-backed forces said they have entered Bani Walid, one of the last outposts still loyal to the fugitive Gaddafi, with fighters saying they now control about 60 per cent of the town. Military commanders said they encountered heavy resistance from Gaddafi loyalists in the town, located about 170 kilometres south-east of Tripoli, on Sunday.
Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary William Hague visited Tripoli Monday to reopen Britain's embassy in the Libyan capital. Hague said the embassy had an “important role to play” in building relations with the newly-emerging democracy in Libya.
He confirmed that John Jenkins would be Britain's new ambassador to Libya and also announced that Britain would offer medical treatment for Libyans injured in the fighting.
Britain suspended its embassy operations in Tripoli in February during the build-up to the NATO-led intervention a month later. It recognised the National Transitional Council as the new government of Libya at the end of August when Gaddafi's former diplomats were told to vacate the London embassy for their successors.
In addition to pledging medical help for Libyan wounded, Hague also promised British support for demining operations in Libya and said the fourth and final shipment of Libyan banknotes frozen in Britain would be delivered shortly.
At the council's request, British experts on policing civil society and public financial management were working in Libya, were working in Libya, Hague said. - Sapa-dpa