Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libya’s late leader Muammar Gaddafi, has been killed following an armed attack on his residence, officials and his family say.
Reports say a commando unit targeted the 53-year-old at his home in Zintan, in western Libya. Details remain unclear, with conflicting accounts about the exact location. His sister hinted he might have died near the Algerian border.
Once the most prominent face of his father’s regime to the West, Saif al-Islam became a key figure in Libya’s decade of unrest. Captured after the 2011 uprising, he was held by a Zintan militia, sentenced to death in 2015 for war crimes, and later released under amnesty.
In recent years, he tried a political comeback, filing to run in Libya’s postponed presidential elections. His candidacy was controversial, with an outstanding ICC arrest warrant for crimes against humanity.
Libyan authorities have yet to name those responsible for the attack. His death marks a major moment for a country still fractured by rival governments and armed factions.
