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| The Late Gaddafi |
The spokesman, Omar Hamidan, said in a televised speech that Khamis died Saturday of injuries he sustained in the exchange of fire with government forces in the town of Bani Walid, about 170 km southeast of the Libyan capital Tripoli.
Bani Walid, a former Gaddafi stronghold, have witnessed days of clashes after being sieged by factions which demanded the handover of a number of people accused of kidnapping and torturing Omran Shaban, who reportedly captured Gaddafi during last year's conflict in the North African country.
Meanwhile, Libyan prime minister's office said in a statement Saturday that spokesman of the former Gaddafi government, Moussa Ibrahim, has been captured in the town of Tarhouna, 70 km south of Tripoli, by forces belonging to the current government.
Saturday marks one year since Gaddafi's capture and death in his hometown Sirte.
A leading member of the Yemen- based al-Qaida offshoot died Saturday after he was wounded in a U. S. drone strike earlier this month in the southeastern province of Shabwa, a Yemeni government official told Xinhua. The local al-Qaida leader, Adel al-Abab, was pronounced dead at a local medical center after being critically injured in a U.S. drone strike in a mountainous region in Shabwa, the government official said, requesting anonymity.
A number of al-Qaida militants were travelling along with al- Abab in the al-Saeed area in Shabwa's suburbs when their pick-up trucks were hit by missiles, the government source said.
Al-Abab was critically injured and was taken to a nearby medical center, but he did not survive his grave wounds, he added.
Two tribal chiefs confirmed told Xinhua anonymously that " several al-Qaida militants including foreign nationals were killed in the U.S. aerial attack that happened in the past few weeks in Shabwa."
Sources close to the Yemeni al-Qaida branch declined to comment. (Xinhua)
