France, a driving force in the NATO operation in Libya, on Friday said it could not confirm reports that Moamer Kadhafi's youngest son and feared commander Khamis had been killed in an air strike.

"We don't have information to corroborate this report," foreign ministry spokeswoman Christine Fages said after a Libyan rebel spokesman said NATO had hit an operations centre in the town of Zliten killing 32, including Khamis.

Rebel military spokesman Mohammed Zawawi cited spies operating among Kadhafi's ranks and intercepted radio chatter as sources.

But there was no independent verification of Khamis's death, which has been rumoured a number of times during Libya's five month-long civil war.

If confirmed Khamis's death would be a huge blow to both the regime's military and the morale of Kadhafi's inner circle.

The 28-year-old Khamis trained at a Russian military academy and commands the eponymous and much-feared Khamis Brigade -- one of the Libyan regime's toughest fighting units.

Fages said that "what NATO is doing is applying a Security Council resolution."

"NATO is protecting civilians from attacks by the Kadhafi regime. The air strikes, which are only targeting objectives of military interest, are being carried out within this framework," she said.

earlier related report
NATO confirms Zliten raids, probes claims of casualties
Brussels (AFP) Aug 5, 2011 - NATO on Friday confirmed strikes by its warplanes in and around western Zliten the previous day but had no comment on Libyan claims that Moamer Kadhafi's son Khamis and 30 others died in the raid.

"We are aware of the news reports," a NATO official told AFP.

"NATO struck an ammunitiion storage at around 8:15 pm (1815 GMT) in Zliten and a military police facility within a combat area at around 10:45 pm in the area of Zliten yesterday," he added.

As Tripoli accused the alliance of targeting civilians, a rebel spokesman in Libya told AFP that Khamis Kadhafi, 28, was confirmed among the dead in a NATO strike on a command centre in the western town.

"NATO does not target individuals and takes all allegations about civilian casualties very seriously and we are looking into it as we always do," the NATO official said.

The strike appears to have come just hours after Tripoli took journalists on an escorted tour of the centre of Zliten in an effort to rubbish rebel claims of attacking the strategic coastal centre on the road to the capital.

On Thursday an AFP journalist saw the town centre was in the hands of regime forces, although intensive artillery fire was heard in the distance.

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