Muammar Gaddafi son shot dead by gunmen in Libya
Saif al Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libya's late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, has been shot dead by gunmen who broke into his home, officials have said.
The 53-year-old was killed during a "direct confrontation" with four armed men in the Libyan town of Zintan, south-west of the capital Tripoli, his office said in a statement on Tuesday.
His lawyer, Khaled al Zaidi, and separately his adviser Abdullah Othman Abdurrahim, both confirmed his death on Facebook, without providing details.
Despite holding no official position, the second son of the longtime dictator, was once seen as the most powerful figure in the oil-rich North African country after his father, who ruled for more than four decades.
Saif al Islam Gaddafi shaped policy and was involved in high-profile diplomacy, including talks on weapons of mass destruction and compensation for the families of those killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988.
Educated at the London School of Economics and a fluent English speaker, he was once seen by many governments as the acceptable, Western-friendly face of Libya.
But when a rebellion broke out against his father's regime in 2011, he became an architect of a brutal crackdown on rebels.
After fighters took over the capital, he was captured attempting to flee to neighbouring Niger - about a month after his father was hunted down and shot dead by rebels.
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