Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is a Libyan political figure. He is the second son of the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his second wife Safia Farkash. He was a part of his father's inner circle, performing public relations and diplomatic roles on his behalf. He publicly turned down his father's offer of the country's second highest post and held no official government position. According to American State Department officials in Tripoli, during his father's reign, he was the second most widely recognized person in Libya, being at times the "de facto" Prime Minister, and was mentioned as a possible successor, though he rejected this. An arrest warrant was issued for him on 27 June 2011 by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for charges of crimes against humanity against the Libyan people, for killing and persecuting civilians, under Articles 7(1)(a) and 7(1)(h) of the Rome statute. He denied the charges. As of 2011, Gaddafi had strong public support from many portions of the Libyan society, as many viewed him as a reformer and a pacifist, contrary to how Western media portrayed him during the revolution.
The Arab Islamic Republic was a proposed unification of Tunisia and Libya in 1974, agreed upon by Libyan head of state Muammar Gaddafi and Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba. Additional countries — Morocco and Algeria — were later included in the proposal, which was never implemented.
Afriqiyah Airways is a state-owned airline based in Tripoli, Libya. Before the 17 February 2011 revolution, it operated domestic services between Tripoli and Benghazi, and international scheduled services to over 25 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East; since the end of the war, it has been rebuilding its business. Afriqiyah Airways' main base is Tripoli International Airport, and the airline is a member of the Arab Air Carriers Organization.
Muammar Gaddafi became the de facto leader of Libya on 1 September 1969 after leading a group of young Libyan military officers against King Idris I in a bloodless coup d'état. After the king had fled the country, the Libyan Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) headed by Gaddafi abolished the monarchy and the old constitution and established the Libyan Arab Republic, with the motto "freedom, socialism and unity".
Mustafa Ahmed Ben Halim is a Libyan politician and businessman who served in a number of leadership positions in the Kingdom of Libya from 1953 to 1960. Ben Halim was the Prime Minister of Libya from 12 April 1954 to 25 May 1957. Through his political and private sector work, Ben Halim supported the development of the modern Libyan state.
Brega, also known as Mersa Brega or Marsa al-Brega, is a complex of several smaller towns, industry installations and education establishments situated in Libya on the Gulf of Sidra, the most southerly point of the Mediterranean Sea. It is located in the former Ajdabiya District, which in 2007 was merged into the Al Wahat District. The town is the center of Libya's second-largest hydro-carbon complex.
Libya–Russia relations is the bilateral relationship between the State of Libya and the Russian Federation. Russia has an embassy in Tripoli, and Libya has an embassy in Moscow. Diplomatic contact between Russia and Libya has generally been close and productive; seeing as both countries have had and continue to see volatile relations with the United States. Leader Muammar al-Gaddafi was a close ally of the Soviet Union, despite his country's membership in the Non-Aligned Movement; also Russia regarded Libya as one of its strongest allies in the Arab world. After the Libyan Civil War Russia has supported stabilizing the country, and since the outbreak of the new conflict it has primarily backed the Tobruk-based Council of Deputies over the UN-backed Government of National Accord and various other factions.
Al-Mutassim Billah al-Gaddafi was a Libyan Army officer, and the National Security Advisor of Libya from 2008 until 2011. He was the fourth son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and a member of his father's inner circle. His mother was Safia Farkash. He was captured during the Battle of Sirte by anti-Gaddafi forces, and executed along with his father.
The First Libyan Civil War, also referred to as the Libyan Revolution or 17 February Revolution, was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and those seeking to oust his government. The war was preceded by protests in Zawiya on 8 August 2009 and finally ignited by protests in Benghazi beginning on Tuesday, 15 February 2011, which led to clashes with security forces that fired on the crowd. The protests escalated into a rebellion that spread across the country, with the forces opposing Gaddafi establishing an interim governing body, the National Transitional Council.
During the early stages of the Libyan Civil War of 2011, the Gaddafi regime was still in power: but there was widespread withdrawal of support from that regime by influential persons and organisations within the country. Among those who no longer supported the regime, the main concern they expressed was what they regarded as its use of excessive force against peaceful protestors. There were many resignations by ministers of the governing council and other senior officials, diplomats posted abroad, and senior military officers. Islamic clerics, tribal leaders, and members of the former royal family expressed their opposition, while the two leading Libyan oil companies also withdrew support for the regime.
The LSE–Gaddafi affair was a scandal in the United Kingdom that occurred as a result of relationship that existed between the London School of Economics (LSE) and the Libyan government and its leader Muammar Gaddafi and his son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi. The NGO Gaddafi Foundation pledged to donate £1.5 million over five years to a research centre, LSE Global Governance, of which £300k were paid. In addition, LSE Enterprise established a contract worth £2.2 million to train Libyan officials. In 2008, the LSE granted a PhD degree to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the Libyan leader, for a dissertation. Currently, allegations circulate that Gaddafi's thesis was ghost-written and/or plagiarised. In December 2010, Muammar Gaddafi addressed members of the School in a video link-up where he was addressed as "Brother Leader" and received an LSE cap previously given to Nelson Mandela. At the time of the 2011 Libyan Civil War, the relationship between the LSE and the Gaddafi regime, and the conduct of individual members of LSE's staff was called into question. As a result of the scandal, the LSE's Director, Sir Howard Davies, resigned on 3 March 2011, citing "errors of judgement". In a New York Times op-ed piece on 7 March 2011, Roger Cohen wrote, in reference to events that had transpired at the School, "It may be possible to sink to greater depths but right now I can't think how. ...The Arab Spring is also a Western Winter. ...How did we back, use and encourage the brutality of Arab dictators over so many years? To what degree did that cynical encouragement of despots foster the very jihadist rage Western societies sought to curb?"
Muammar Gaddafi (1942–2011) attributed the protests against his rule to people who are "rats" and "cockroaches", terms that have been cited by Hutu radicals of the Tutsi population before the Rwanda genocide began, thus causing unease in the global community. Gaddafi accused his opponents as those who have been influenced by hallucinogenic drugs put in drinks and pills. He specifically referred to substances in milk, coffee and Nescafe. He claimed that Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were distributing these hallucinogenic drugs. He also blamed alcohol, which had been banned in Libya shortly after he took power in 1969. Gaddafi also claimed that the protests against his rule were a "colonialist plot" by foreign countries to control oil and "enslave" Libyan people. He had asserted that he will chase down the protesters and cleanse the country "house by house". Gaddafi had also stated that "those who don't love me do not deserve to live". On 22 February 2011, Gaddafi mentioned China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre which crushed the democratic movement led by students and threatened widespread killings against dissidents in an appearance on state television as the revolt against his government consolidated its grip on the eastern half of the country and spread to the suburbs of Tripoli.
Field Marshal Khalifa Belqasim Haftar is a dual Libyan-American citizen who is a military officer and the head of the Libyan National Army (LNA), which, under Haftar's leadership, replaced nine elected municipal councils by military administrators, and as of May 2019, was engaged in the Second Libyan Civil War. On 2 March 2015, he was appointed commander of the armed forces loyal to the elected legislative body, the Libyan House of Representatives.
The Libyan National Movement is a Libyan political organization. The Libyan National Movement was established in December 1980, by opponents of Muammar Gaddafi's government. The founder of the organization was the Ba'athist lawyer 'Umran Burweiss. Muftah Lamlum is the general secretary of the Libyan National Movement. Politically, the Libyan National Movement has a left-wing nationalist with a Ba'athist orientation. The organization operates in exile, primarily amongst Libyans in Europe, during the mid-1980s it was active amongst students abroad. The publication of the organization was called Sawt at-Talia. The magazine was later discontinued and substituted by a website.
The Arab Socialist Union of Libya was a political party in Libya from 1971 to 1977 led by Muammar Gaddafi.
Abdelhakim Belhaj is a Libyan politician and military leader. He is the leader of the conservative Islamist al-Watan Party and former head of Tripoli Military Council. He was the emir of the defunct Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an anti-Gaddafi guerrilla group.
The following lists events that happened during 2011 in Libya.
