Gaddafi’s Son, Saif al-Islam assassinated in Libya

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has been assassinated in western Libya.

Reports from Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Ahmed Khalifa said Saif al-Islam was shot dead on Tuesday in Zintan, the city where he had lived for more than a decade after the fall of his father’s regime.

According to Al-Ahrar TV, a Libyan source, Abdullah Othman Abdurrahim, disclosed that four unidentified gunmen attacked Saif al-Islam’s residence after disabling the property’s surveillance system.

“Four armed men stormed the residence of Seif al-Islam Kadhafi after disabling surveillance cameras, then executed him,” Abdurrahim said.

His death was further confirmed by his French lawyer, Marcel Ceccaldi, who told AFP that a four-man armed team carried out the killing at his home in Zintan.

Ceccaldi said the perpetrators were yet to be identified, noting that concerns about Saif al-Islam’s safety had been raised days earlier.

“For now, we don’t know” who carried out the attack, he said, adding that one of Saif al-Islam’s close associates had warned about security threats roughly ten days ago.

Before the 2011 uprising, Saif al-Islam was widely seen as the political successor to Muammar Gaddafi and one of the most influential figures in Libya.

After the collapse of the Gaddafi government, he was captured by fighters in Zintan, where he remained amid prolonged legal disputes, international arrest warrants, and political uncertainty.

In 2021, Saif al-Islam declared his intention to contest Libya’s presidential election, but the polls were later postponed indefinitely.

Reacting to the killing, his cousin, Hamid Kadhafi, told Al-Ahrar TV that Saif al-Islam had “fallen as a martyr.”

As of the time of filing this report, Libyan authorities had yet to issue an official statement on the assassination.