Vandals in Libya have attacked the embassies of the U.K. and Italy on Sunday, angered over the NATO missile strike that killed one of Moammar Gadhafi's sons and three of his grandchildren
The Italian Foreign Ministry said its embassy and several others in the Libyan capital have been damaged by vandals and accused the Gadhafi regime of failing to take measures to protect foreign missions.
Fires broke out at both embassies, leaving the British mission especially damaged. Other embassies are also said to have been attacked.
In response, the U.K. has expelled its ambassador from Libya and condemned the attacks on the embassy in Tripoli.
The United Nations also says it is evacuating its international staff from the city following the latest spate of violence.
The attacks follow a NATO missile strike late Saturday that leveled a building in suburban Tripoli -- narrowly missing Gadhafi but killing four of his family including his 29-year-old son, Seif al-Arab.
The strike prompted cheers from the country's embattled rebels and condemnations from its allies. Libyan officials described it as an assassination attempt and a violation of international law, describing the Gadhafi family at leisure before the attack.
Seif al-Arab "was playing and talking with his father and mother and his nieces and nephews and other visitors," said Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim. Also killed were three of Gadhafi's grandchildren, all under 12.
"The leader himself is in good health," added Ibrahim. Gadhafi's wife, Safiya, was also unharmed.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and a Russian government spokesman both spoke out against the attack, alleging that NATO is out to kill Gadhafi.
"More and more facts indicate that the aim of the anti-Libyan coalition is the physical destruction of Gadhafi," said Konstantin Kosachyov, who heads the lower house of parliament's international affairs committee. Russia abstained in the March vote in the U.N. Security Council that authorized the use of force in Libya to protect civilians.
NATO officials appeared to side-step questions about the attack. The alliance acknowledged it had struck a "command and control building," but insisted all its targets are military in nature and linked to Gadhafi's systematic attacks on the population, in keeping with the UN resolution that in March opened the door for western military intervention in Libya.
The commander of the operation, Canadian Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, said he was aware of the reported deaths and that he regretted "all loss of life, specially the innocent civilians being harmed as a result of the ongoing conflict."
Elsewhere in Libya, rebels cheered the incident as a sign of the increasing pressure on Gadhafi as the country's uprising drags into its fourth month. Rebels honked horns and sped through the western city of Misrata, which pro-government forces have besieged and subjected to random shelling for two months, killing hundreds.
"Gadhafi was not far away, meaning he's not safe," said one resident. "It's just like our children getting hit here. Now his children are getting hit there."
But within hours, government forces shelled the port town, signaling that the regime is not changing its approach to the rebels. Loyalists, who last week sought to cut Misrata off from the outside world by mining the harbour, shelled the port on Sunday as a Maltese ship was unloading relief supplies.
The airstrike and renewed shelling of Misrata come shortly after Gadhafi called for a mutual cease-fire in a pre-dawn speech early on Saturday.
Seif al-Arab Gadhafi was one of the youngest of Gadhafi's seven sons and brother of the better-known Seif al-Islam Gadhafi. He lived, studied and partied for many years in Germany where he had several run-ins with the law including a 2007 investigation for possession of illegal weapons. He returned to Libya in February at the start of the uprising.
With files from Associated Press
