TRIPOLI, (Reuters) – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi  survived a NATO air strike that killed his youngest son and  three grandchildren and destroyed a Tripoli house, a Libyan  government spokesman said today. “What we have now is the law of the jungle,” government  spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told a news conference. “We think now it  is clear to everyone that what is happening in Libya has nothing  to do with the protection of civilians.”Gaddafi, who seized power in a 1969 coup, is fighting an  uprising by rebels who have seized much of the eastern part of  the country. British and French-led NATO forces are permitted  under a United Nations resolution to attack Gaddafi forces to  protect civilians.
There was no immediate NATO reaction or independent  confirmation of the incident.
Libya’s government took journalists to the house, which had  been hit by at least three missiles. The roof had completely  caved in some areas, leaving mangled rods of reinforcing  steel hanging down among chunks of concrete.
A table football machine stood outside in the garden of the  house, which was in a wealthy residential area of Tripoli.
The blasts had been heard across the city late today.
Rifle fire and car horns rang out in the rebels’ eastern  capital of Benghazi as news of the attack spread.
Authorities said Gaddafi’s youngest son, Saif Al-Arab, had  been killed in the attack. Saif al-Arab is one of Gaddafi’s less  prominent sons, with a limited role in the Tripoli power  structure.
Ibrahim said Saif al-Arab, 29, was a student who had studied  in Germany.
“We will fight and fight if we have to,” Ibrahim said. “The  leader offered peace to NATO yesterday and NATO rejected it.”