Gaddafi presses offensive after son killed

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TRIPOLI, May 2 (Reuters): Muammar Gaddafi pressed an offensive against rebel forces, and his supporters burned Western embassies after the Libyan leader survived a NATO airstrike that officials said killed his son and three grandchildren. The embassies of Britain and Italy were attacked and burned, along with the U.S. commercial and consular affairs department after Gaddafi loyalists were shown on Libyan television vowing vengeance. The buildings had been vacated weeks earlier. Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim said the strikes were a fourth attempt to assassinate Gaddafi. He denied allegations in some media that the deaths had been fabricated to discredit NATO. Any appearance of an assassination attempt against Gaddafi is likely to lead to accusations the British and French-led strikes are exceeding the U.N. mandate to protect civilians. French surgeon Gerrard Le Clouerec, who does not work for the Libyan government, was asked to independently identify the bodies of Saif al-Arab and two children. He said all three had died due to a blast. He said the children's faces had been obliterated by the blast so they were difficult to identify. Le Clouerec said he also saw the body of a young man of about 30, with a beard and a thin mustache whose face matched a photograph he had been shown of Saif al-Arab. Gaddafi's forces fired rockets at the port in Misrata Sunday as an aid ship was trying to unload, rebels said, and the shelling forced two other vessels to wait offshore. The port is the lifeline for Misrata which has been under siege for weeks. Libyan state television said the port was shelled to stop NATO from delivering weapons to the insurgents. The rebel spokesman said that was a lie. Rights groups say hundreds of people, including many civilians, have been killed in Misrata, about 200 km (130 miles) east of Tripoli. Officials in Tripoli deny targeting civilians, and say they are fighting armed gangs and al Qaeda sympathizers. Rebels have repelled government troops from the center of Libya's third largest city in recent days and now say they have gone on the offensive to try to capture Misrata airport. The frontline in eastern Libya has been static west of the town of Ajdabiyah for a week with government troops digging in and rebels attempting to train and regroup.