TRIPOLI, Libya - Mourners shouted for revenge Monday as some 2,000 people in the Libyan capital greeted a funeral procession carrying Moammar Gadhafi's second youngest son, who officials say was killed in a NATO airstrike.
The crowd jostled to get close to Seif al-Arab Gadhafi's coffin as it was taken out of a black hearse and placed near a cemetery in Tripoli. Some people prayed, some flashed victory signs and others shouted at the top of their lungs.
"Revenge, revenge for you Libya," shouted the crowd around the coffin, which was draped in the green Libyan flag and was topped with a wreath of flowers that were wilting in the heat. "We demand revenge for our martyrs."
Libyan officials said 29-year-old Seif al-Arab was killed late Saturday along with three of Gadhafi's grandchildren when NATO bombed the family's compound in Tripoli. Gadhafi and his wife were present during the attack but were unharmed, they said.
Some countries criticized the strike, saying it exceeded the UN mandate of protecting civilians in Libya. The UN approved the implementation of a no-fly zone in Libya in March after Gadhafi used aircraft to attack protesters who demanded his ouster.
The South African government issued a statement Monday saying "attacks on leaders and officials can only result in the escalation of tensions and conflicts on all sides and make future reconciliation difficult."
NATO officials and allied leaders emphatically denied they were hunting Gadhafi to break the stalemate between better trained government forces and lightly armed rebels, who control much of eastern Libya.
Russia cast doubt on that assertion Sunday, accusing NATO of a "disproportionate use of force" and calling for an immediate cease-fire.
Gadhafi has also called for a cease-fire, but rebels don't believe it is genuine, especially since he has continued to pound the besieged town of Misrata, the only major rebel bastion in western Libya.
Gadhafi's forces used tanks to shell Misrata on Monday, as rumors fueled fears that the Libyan leader was preparing to use chemical weapons.
Hundreds have been killed in Misrata over the past two months as Gadhafi has attempted to seize the town. Rebels succeeded in pushing Gadhafi forces out of several areas in the center of the town about a week ago, but they have responded with relentless shelling from the outskirts.
The most recent barrage came after Gadhafi forces brought their tanks to the western gates of Misrata, said Libyan activist Rida al-Montasser. The shelling started up early Monday morning and only paused with the threat of NATO airstrikes, he said.
"Only when we heard the NATO planes flying over, the shelling paused," said al-Montasser.
NATO aircraft have carried out multiple airstrikes to try to stop Gadhafi's siege, but alliance officials have said they have found it difficult to target forces hidden in Misrata's urban environment.
Even as the shelling paused Monday, fear spread through Misrata that Gadhafi forces were preparing to use chemical weapons in their fight to defeat the rebels, who control eastern Libya and have demanded the Libyan leader step down.
"We heard like everybody else that the soldiers are distributing gas masks" in the nearby city of Zlitan, said al-Montasser.
The rumors of Gadhafi forces distributing gas masks could not be independently confirmed.
A UN watchdog indicated in February, soon after the Libyan revolution started, that it was unlikely that Gadhafi would use chemical weapons because he had no weapon to deliver such a payload. Gadhafi destroyed the aerial bombs as part of a 2003 reconciliation deal with the West, said the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. He also destroyed more than 50 per cent of his stockpile for producing mustard gas, it said.
U.S. and British intelligence agencies reportedly have been concerned that Gadhafi may not have declared all his munitions and may have held some back, but no evidence has surfaced to support those fears.
Experts say conventional warheads cannot easily be adapted to chemical warfare. The chemical agent is in liquid form, must be kept stable at various temperatures, then converted to an aerosol and dispersed over a wide area to be an effective weapon.
Fearful residents of Misrata asked officials in Benghazi, the de facto capital in eastern Libya, to send a shipment of gas masks, said a doctor in Misrata who only identified himself as Ayman for fear of being targeted by Gadhafi's forces.
"We know that this regime is ready to kill people using any means," he said. "We asked for masks, but we know it is hard to provide masks for 300,000 residents in the city. It is even hard to provide weapons or ammunition."
On Sunday, the Libyan government unleashed two volleys of rockets on Misrata's port, and heavy shelling occurred elsewhere in the city throughout the day. The attacks killed 12 people, raising the two-day death toll to 23.
Also Sunday, vandals burned the British and Italian embassies and a UN office in Tripoli, hours after the NATO strike that killed Gadhafi's son.
Turkey temporarily closed its embassy in Tripoli on Monday due to deteriorating security, and its staff traveled to Tunisia, said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
"Of course this does not mean Turkey will cease its activity," Davutoglu told reporters.
The Turkish consulate in rebel-controlled Benghazi was still open, the foreign ministry said.
