Saif al-Arab al-Gaddafi

(England Twitter)-Saif al-Arab al-Gaddafi (Arabic: سيف العرب القذافي‎, lit. Sword of the Arabs; of the Gaddafa) (1982 – presumed 2011) was the sixth son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. On 30 April 2011, the Libyan government reported that Saif and three of his young nieces and nephews were killed by a NATO airstrike on his house during the Libyan civil war. Members of the opposition have questioned whether the death actually occurred. Saif was viewed as the most low-profile of Muammar's sons.

Early life

Saif al-Arab al-Gaddafi was born in 1982 in the Libyan capital Tripoli. His father is Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi,Alleged death

Members of the opposition centered in Benghazi have speculated that the Libyan government's claim of Saif al-Arab's death was a tactic to gain sympathy.Abdul Hafez Goga, spokesperson for the Transitional National Council, said he thinks it could all be fabrication: "Back in 1986, Gaddafi once claimed that Ronald Reagan, then US president, had launched a strike on his compound in Tripoli and killed his daughter. Many journalists since then dug around and found out that the actual child that had died had nothing to do with Gaddafi, that he sort of adopted her posthumously. and his mother was Safia Farkash, Muammar Gaddafi's second wife. Saif was wounded in the U.S. bombing attack of 1986, when he was 4.

Life in Munich

In 2006 Saif al-Arab enrolled as a student at the Technical University of Munich in Germany. Later that year while living as a student in Munich Saif al-Arab became involved in a fight with a nightclub bouncer, after his girlfriend was thrown out of a Munich nightclub. In 2008, Saif al-Arab was still studying in Munich. Excessive noise from the exhaust of his Ferrari F430 led to questions from the German police and his car being impounded. Also that year Saif al-Arab was suspected of attempting to smuggle an assault rifle, a revolver and munitions from Munich to Paris in a car with diplomatic number plates. However, the case was later dropped as the alleged weapons were never found and the German public prosecutor decided that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a prosecution. In addition to his studies, Al Jazeera reported Saif al-Arab engaged in unspecified business activities and spent much of his time partying while in Munich.

Alleged death

On 30 April 2011, a Libyan government spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, announced an air strike on Saif al-Arab's house had killed Saif al-Arab, along with three of Muamar Gaddafi's grandchildren. Moussa Ibrahim refuses to release the names of the grandchildren killed for "privacy reasons". The government also claimed Muammar Gaddafi was present in the house during the attack, but "escaped". Saif has been viewed as the most low-profile of Muammar's sons.

The next day Libyan state TV showed footage of two bodies in a hospital fully covered and veiled, and thus unidentifiable, but claimed that one of them was Saif al-Arab Gaddafi's corpse.

NATO said it struck a command and control center, not a residential structure and that it was not targeting individuals.

The British foreign ministry says it is unable to verify if Saif al-Arab or his relatives were killed.

Actions during the Libyan civil war

On 26 February 2011, the United Nations Security Council issued Resolution 1970 which imposed a travel ban on Saif al-Arab but stopped short of imposing an asset freeze as it did with many other members of the Gaddafi family.

During the Libyan civil war, Saif al-Arab was sent by his father to the eastern part of Libya to put down the protests. Combat troops and military equipment were placed at his disposal. It was rumoured that he later defected to the rebel side along with the troops under his command, though this was not confirmed.