Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of Libya’s late ruler Muammar Gaddafi, has been killed after being shot in the western Libyan city of Zintan on Tuesday.

According to Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Libya, Ahmed Khalifa, Saif al-Islam had been living in Zintan for the past decade. He was reportedly shot dead there, although the exact circumstances surrounding the attack remain unclear.

His death was confirmed by his political adviser, Abdullah Othman. However, no information has yet emerged about who carried out the shooting or what motivated it. The Libyan government has so far made no official statement on the incident.

Educated in the West and known for his fluent communication skills, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi had long presented himself as the reform-minded face of his father’s authoritarian rule. From the early 2000s, he played a key role in efforts to restore Libya’s diplomatic ties with Western countries.

In 2008, he earned a PhD from the London School of Economics, where his research focused on the role of civil society in reforming global governance.

Before the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Saif al-Islam was widely regarded as Libya’s second most powerful figure. After his father was killed by rebels that year, he was captured and held in Zintan. He was released from prison under a general amnesty in 2017 but continued to reside in the same area.

The death of Saif al-Islam, a deeply influential yet controversial figure, is expected to have implications for Libya’s already fragile and unstable political landscape.