Libyas power vacuum widens after killing of former regime leader

Libya’s Former Dictator Son Killed in Western Town

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, a prominent son of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, was killed on Tuesday in the western town of Zintan. The 53-year-old had been an alternative to Libya’s current power duopoly, which is split between the United Nations-recognised government in Tripoli and the Libyan National Army in the east.

A reported meeting at Paris’s Elysee Palace earlier this month brought together Saddam Haftar, son of eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar, and advisers to Tripoli-based Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah. A subsequent meeting brokered by the United States also took place in Paris, involving senior officials from both rival Libyan administrations.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s death has highlighted the insecurity Libya still faces and the murky nature of its political divides. Despite having no notable military force or control over territory, he had some influence in Libya due to his symbolic role. He was once seen as a reform-minded heir before dropping that image during the 2011 revolution.

Gaddafi was captured by rebels in 2011 and spent six years held in Zintan by a local militia. After his release in 2017, he kept a low profile until resurfacing publicly with a New York Times interview in 2021. He later pursued presidential ambitions but was disqualified due to an earlier war crimes conviction.

Gaddafi’s death removes a figure who commanded symbolic influence among some Libyans, while others reviled him as the representative of a hated regime. His real power lay not in military force but in his ideological disposition, which is referred to locally as the Greens.

Source: Al Jazeera