Libyan regime denies death of Gaddafi’s son

The Libyan government has denied rebel claims that Khamis Gaddafi, one of Moammar Gaddafi's most powerful sons, was killed in a NATO air strike last night.

"It's false news," said Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim, the Guardian reported.

According to Libya's rebels, Khamis was killed in an overnight NATO raid on the western town of Zlitan, where troops under his command had been leading the defense against rebel forces trying to take the town.

If true, his death is a much bigger blow to the Gaddafi regime than that of his youngest brother, Saif al-Arab, who was killed by a NATO airstrike in May, the Christian Science Monitor reported. Khamis, is the commander of the Khamis Brigade, one of the country's most feared fighting forces.

The rebels say that their spies first told them about Khamis's death and that it was confirmed in overheard radio dispatches from Gaddafi's troops. More than 30 other people were killed in the strike on a regime command center, Agence France-Presse reported.

Meanwhile Rebels had something else to cheer about— a massive Libyan oil tanker that had earlier been reported to have been seized was cleared to proceed by NATO ships enforcing an arms embargo. Later on Thursday, the Cartagena sailed into the rebel-held port of Benghazi.

The docking of the Cartagena, carrying at least 30,000 tons of gasoline, is a victory considering gasoline is a scarce commodity in Tripoli, the Tripoli Post reported. Sources said that the rebels had been informed about the vessel by NATO. The rebels then intercepted it, with the help of NATO, in waters close to the loyalist capital.

From Tripoli, Gaddafi's son and heir apparent, Saif al-Islam told the New York times Thursday that the regime had formed an alliance with the country's Islamists – whom the regime previously accused of being behind the unrest that engulfed eastern Libya.

“The liberals will escape or be killed,” the son, Seif al-Islam, vowed in a startling announcement. “We will do it together,” he added from a Tripoli hotel. “Libya will look like Saudi Arabia, like Iran. So what?”

It is a strange claim considering Islamists say they were persecuted by Gaddafi for decades before the revolution. The leading Islamist whom Saif al-Islam identified as his main counterpart in the talks, Ali Sallabi, acknowledged conversations but dismissed any suggestion of an alliance. He said the Libyan Islamists supported the rebel leaders’ idea of a pluralistic democracy.

"Our dialogue with the Gaddafi's famil  is always based on three points: Gaddafi and his sons must leave Libya, the capital must be protected from destruction and the blood of Libyans must be spared. There is no doubt about these constants," Sallabi told Al Jazeera.