Gaddafi youngest son, murdered stories, shows on TV

Benghazi:  Libyan national TV today show images of a man it said was Moammar Gaddafi's youngest son, footage that seems to weaken rebel claims of his death at a time when the opposition is presenting signs of hurt and disorder six months into its fighting with the Libyan leader.

The photos of Khamis Gaddafi, who controls one of the best skilled and equipped units in the Libyan army, come as the radical leadership, recognized as the National Transition Council, struggles with fallout from the murdering of its highest military chief, Abdel-Fattah Younis, likely by other rebels.

The dissenters had asserted on Friday that the younger Gaddafi was died in a NATO airstrike on the western front-line town of Zlitan - a report that Tripoli dismissed as an effort to avert attention from Younis' killing.

Younis' body was found two weeks before, discarded outside the rebel's de facto eastern capital, Benghazi, with the bodies of two colonels who were his top supporters. They had been gun fired and their bodies burned.

Strains over Younis' death prompted the leaders to bag their own Cabinet late Monday and yesterday ordered the movement's several armed groups to add in hopes of enforcing some order.

"One positive aspect that could come of Younis' murder is that the activists will try to get the groups collectively and grow a coherent military force," said Libya experts Ronald Bruce St John.

"Then they will have a good opportunity to defeat Gaddafi."

Khamis Gaddafi's appearance at a Tripoli hospital yesterday, if real, would make the first time he has been looked in public since the reports of his death. The younger Gaddafi was shown visiting some people hurted in a NATO airstrike. The video recording could add to the distress of the opposition, pointing out questions about the reality of their reports even as they attempt to shore up their image after Younis' killing through the Cabinet reorganize.

The United States greeted their rearrangements. The State Department said it was a indication the national council, which the US and others recognize as Libya's legal government, is using Younis' slaying as a chance for "reflection" and "restitution" by firing its executive committee.

The Libyan uprising started in mid-February, with the activist’s rapidly wresting control of much of the eastern half of the country, as well as pockets in the west. Six months on, the clash has settled into a deadlock.