(2 of 11)
If the bombs had fallen differently, the U.S. might have eliminated one of its principal adversaries in that long battle. Despite the tonnage dropped on the barracks where Gaddafi lives, Administration officials insisted they were not trying to kill him. "He was not a direct target," said Secretary of State George Shultz. Pentagon Spokesman Robert Sims elaborated: "The nerve center was the target, not the individual." Privately, though, Reagan's aides left no doubt that, to put it mildly, they would not have been unhappy if Gaddafi just happened to die in the raid. The distinction appeared to be largely legalistic; a long-standing U.S. Executive Order forbids attempts to assassinate foreign heads of state, and it would be an extremely fine point whether that includes targeting one in a bombing raid.
In any case, Gaddafi survived the attack, apparently because he was not in his personal residence but, said a close associate, "underground"--presumably in a bunker where he often sleeps. His family was less fortunate: an 18-month-old girl, reportedly his adopted daughter Hana, was said to have been one of at least 37 civilian casualties of the raid. The dictator's two young sons, Saif al Arab, 4, and Hamis, 3, were injured and his wife Safia shell-shocked when bombs blew off the front walls of their living quarters.
There was some speculation that Gaddafi had at least lost some political power. Washington was wondering how far to trust intelligence reports indicating that the U.S. attack had touched off an attempted military coup against the Libyan leader during which he had been wounded in the left shoulder. If there was an attempt at a coup--and journalists in Libya could detect no more than some mysterious firing--Gaddafi survived that too and appeared to be no more than momentarily subdued. No wounds were visible when he began making appearances on Libyan TV at midweek, apparently to reassure his countrymen that the U.S. attack was over and he was still in command.
Gaddafi raged at Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as "child murderers" and announced to the Western world that "we will not kill your children. We are not like you." This comment overlooked the fact that in December, Gaddafi praised and perhaps assisted the terrorists who opened fire on passengers in the Rome and Vienna airports, killing 20 people, including an eleven-year-old American, Natasha Simpson. Overall, White House Spokesman Larry Speakes was quick to contrast the casualties of the Libya raid with the 938 people he said had died last year in terrorist attacks around the world, though American officials admitted they had difficulty breaking down how many of these could be called direct or indirect victims of Gaddafi. For once, Gaddafi in his Wednesday talk made no threats of new attacks. But by week's end Radio Tripoli was calling for bloody vengeance. His followers and allies by then had already begun a wave of reprisal attacks. Among them: