Seif Al-Islam Gadhafi Shot Dead In Libya Amid Rising Political Tensions

Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, the son of Libya’s late ruler Moammar Gadhafi, was shot dead after armed men stormed his residence in the western Libyan city of Zintan, Libyan officials said on Wednesday.

The killing comes amid renewed political tensions in the country, which remains deeply divided between rival governments and armed factions more than a decade after the fall of the Gadhafi regime.

Libyan authorities said Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, 53, died from gunshot wounds sustained during the attack. Prosecutors have opened an investigation into the incident and dispatched forensic teams to the scene.

“The victim died from wounds caused by gunfire,” the public prosecutor’s office said in a statement, adding that investigators were working to identify suspects and interview witnesses who may have information about the killing.

According to Seif al-Islam’s political office, four masked men stormed his residence and killed him in what it described as a “treacherous and cowardly” act. His lawyer, Khaled al-Zaidi, confirmed that the killing was an assassination carried out at his home.

The Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television channel reported that Seif al-Islam was shot dead in the garden of his residence, citing sources close to the Gadhafi family.

Seif al-Islam, the second-eldest son of Moammar Gadhafi, had recently been seeking a return to public life in Libya, a move that could have reshaped the country’s fractured political landscape. Before his father’s overthrow and death in 2011, he was widely seen as a potential successor and had promoted limited political and economic reforms.

During the 2011 uprising, however, Seif al-Islam publicly supported the government’s violent crackdown on protesters, a stance that damaged his standing both domestically and internationally.

Speculation following the killing has focused on militias linked to the Tripoli-based government of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh. A militia aligned with the government has denied any involvement, rejecting the allegations as false.

In a statement, Seif al-Islam’s political office called on the Libyan judiciary, the international community, the United Nations and human rights organizations to launch an independent and transparent investigation at both the local and international levels.

Libya has remained unstable since the 2011 uprising, with competing centers of power and armed groups continuing to vie for influence, often through violence.