"They are so happy that Qadhafi lost his son in an air strike that they are shooting in celebration," said Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani, military spokesman of the Libyan opposition Transitional Nation Council, headquartered in Benghazi.

Cars whizzed by the sea front beeping their horns and shouting "God is greatest" as the night sky was lit up by red tracer fire.

Sayf al-Arab Qadhafi, Qadhafi's youngest son, and three of his grandchildren were killed in an airstrike on Saturday, a Libyan government spokesman said.