Saif al-Islam, son of Libya's former leader Gaddafi, was shot and killed.

International media reports that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of former Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, has been shot dead. The death of 53-year-old Saif al-Islam, once considered his father's political heir, was confirmed to the Libyan news agency on Tuesday by the head of his political group.

His lawyer told AFP that a four-member special commando team carried out the assassination at his home in Zintan. It is not yet clear who is behind the attack, and conflicting views have also been expressed regarding the incident. In particular, his sister told a Libyan television channel that he died near the Libya-Algeria border.

Saif al-Islam is considered the most powerful person in the country after Muammar Gaddafi, who ruled Libya from 1969 until he was overthrown and killed in a rebellion in 2011. Born in 1972, he held no official government position but pioneered the rebuilding of relations with Western countries and the implementation of crucial policy changes, such as abandoning Libya's nuclear weapons program, from 2000 onwards. These measures led to the lifting of international sanctions against Libya, and at the time, he gained the attention of the Western world as a reformist leader.

Accused of contributing to the suppression of anti-government protests after the fall of the Gaddafi regime, Saif al-Islam was imprisoned by a rival militia group in Zintan for about six years. The International Criminal Court (ICC) had issued a warrant for his arrest for committing crimes against humanity during the suppression of the 2011 protests. Furthermore, a court operating under the UN-backed Tripoli government sentenced him to death in absentia in 2015.

However, in 2017, he was released under a general amnesty law passed by the Tobruk administration in eastern Libya. Although he had previously stated that he had no intention of inheriting state power, he was preparing to run in the indefinitely postponed 2021 presidential election. This assassination occurred against the backdrop of Libya being divided under various armed groups and two rival governments since the collapse of the Gaddafi regime.