A lawyer claims a hit squad stormed Saif al-Islam’s safe house, executing him in a professional hit to prevent his presidential run.

While family members look to the border, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s legal team is telling a darker, more precise story. According to his lawyer, the son of the late Muammar Gaddafi did not die on the run; he was executed in his home. A four-man commando unit, armed and highly trained, reportedly stormed his residence in the mountain city of Zintan early Tuesday, overwhelming his security and assassinating the man who threatened to upend Libya’s fragile political order.

"This was not a random act of violence," the lawyer told international media. "This was a targeted liquidation." The account contradicts reports of his death near Algeria, painting a picture of a political hit job designed to eliminate a candidate who, despite his past, commanded significant support among tribes loyal to the old regime.

The Zintan Connection

Zintan has been Saif’s gilded cage and fortress for years. Captured by Zintani militias in 2011, he was held there not just as a prisoner, but as a political card. Over time, his captors became his protectors. For a hit squad to penetrate Zintan, a stronghold of military power, suggests high-level betrayal or a formidable external force. Who had the reach and the motive to strike him there?

The timing is suspicious. Saif had been making moves to re-enter the political fray, aiming for the presidency in elections that have been perpetually postponed. His name on the ballot was a nightmare scenario for both the Western-backed government in Tripoli and the warlord Khalifa Haftar in the East.

The Commando Theory

The description of "four armed men" suggests a surgical operation. They didn't level the house; they entered, killed the target, and vanished. This bears the hallmarks of foreign intelligence or elite special forces, not the chaotic spray-and-pray tactics of local militias.

• The Motive: A live Saif al-Islam was a destabilizing variable. A dead Saif is a martyr to some, but a removed obstacle to the power brokers. His death simplifies the equation of Libyan politics.
• The Silence: Libyan authorities have been slow to confirm the details. This silence speaks volumes. In Libya, truth is the first casualty of any assassination.

If the lawyer’s account is true, Saif al-Islam didn't die fleeing; he died waiting. Waiting for a chance to reclaim his father’s throne, only to find that in the new Libya, the penalty for ambition is a bullet in the dark.