Khamis Gaddafi and the mystery of Jeremy Bowen's notebook

Colonel Gaddafi's son and most feared military commander appears to have planned his last-ditch defence of the regime in the back of a notebook taken from the BBC correspondent Jeremy Bowen.

According to brigade members captured by the rebels, Khamis was in an armoured Toyota Land Cruiser which was destroyed in the rebel attack, and did not survive Photo: Balkis Press/ABACAPRESS.COM

Khamis Gaddafi, or one of his close military aides, wrote reminders to himself in the black-covered, A5-sized book as he planned what seem to be the final battles, earlier this month, for towns near the city of Zliten.

"Make defence lines around Kiam, Majr, and Edwaw. Put attack force on the bridge in the city centre. Communicate to Majr's [army] camp and secure it," the notes, in Arabic, say.

In February, it was this brigade that crushed the revolt in Zawiyah, west of the capital, firing heavy artillery at mosques, hospitals and civilian areas and killing dozens, perhaps hundreds, of people. It has also been implicated in the massacre of more than 150 prisoners.

Khamis, 28, Gaddafi's youngest son, was commander of the 32nd "Khamis" Brigade, one of the best-equipped and trained Libyan military units, and the fact that such a feared and senior military commander should write his strategy inside a British journalist's notebook has opened him to derision.

The notebook contains chilling lists of named individuals to be "searched for," and presumably detained or murdered.

The book was recovered last Friday from the wreckage of a military convoy led by Khamis, in which he was apparently killed.

It was shown to The Sunday Telegraph by rebel commanders who carried out the attack on the convoy.

In the front of the book, meanwhile, are Mr Bowen's earlier notes about the frustrations of life in pre-revolutionary Libya, and the challenges of reporting under strict supervision. On one page, Mr Bowen appears to have written a prisoner's wall chart, crossing off the days until he is out of Libya.

He said last night: "It is very curious. I lost this book on a government-organised bus trip to Misurata in April. I had a phone call about a week or two ago from someone who said they had it. I don't know who they were."

The book, presumably found in the journalists' bus or stolen from Mr Bowen's possessions, was passed to Khamis or his staff.

Rebel commanders in the town of Tarhuna, who carried out the attack on Khamis's convoy, said that they had recovered the book from the convoy.

In the closing stages of the revolution, the Khamis Brigade fought unsuccessfully to stop the Misurata rebels advancing west into Tripoli, and it is these battles to which the notes appear to refer.

Retreating to the capital itself, the brigade, led by Khamis, then made a last-ditch attempt to reach the regime stronghold of Bani Walid, ninety miles to the south.

According to brigade members captured by the rebels, Khamis was in an armoured Toyota Land Cruiser which was destroyed in the rebel attack, and did not survive.