Saif al-Arab Gaddafi

Saif al-Arab Gaddafi (, lit. Sword of the Arabs; of the Gaddafa; 1982 – 30 April 2011) was the sixth son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. From around 2006 to 2010, Saif al-Arab spent much of his time in Munich. On 30 April 2011, the Libyan government reported that Saif al-Arab and three of his young nieces and nephews were killed by a NATO airstrike on his house during the Libyan Civil War. During the beginning of the uprising, Saif al-Arab was put in charge of military forces by his father in order to put down protesters in Benghazi. Saif al-Arab was viewed as the most low-profile of Gaddafi's eight children. Early life Saif al-Arab was born in 1982 in the Libyan capital of Tripoli. His father was Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and his mother was Safia Farkash, Gaddafi's second wife. Saif al-Arab was wounded in the U.S. bombing attack of 1986 when he was four years old. Life in Munich In 2006, Saif al-Arab came to Munich with an Italian tourist visa for a proposed study. In November that year, Saif al-Arab became involved in a fight with a nightclub bouncer, after his girlfriend was thrown out of Munich's "4004" nightclub for performing a strip show for Saif al-Arab. In the resulting scuffle Saif al-Arab received a cut to his head. Although Saif al-Arab was charged, the Munich public prosecutor dropped charges on the basis that a prosecution would not be in the public interest. German police later received reports that Saif al-Arab was planning an acid attack against the bouncer and the Libyan embassy in Germany unsuccessfully attempted to secure diplomatic immunity for Saif al-Arab. By March 2007, Saif al-Arab's location was not known and it was thought that he was not in Germany. In 2008, Saif al-Arab again stayed 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. The Guardian newspaper reported that German police officers had stated that the case was dropped out of fear that German businesses and residents in Libya would suffer retaliatory action, although this was denied by the German prosecutor's office.