Khamis Gaddafi

Muammar Gaddafi ordered the disbandment of Mutassim's 77th Tank Battalion and created the 32nd Reinforced Brigade (better known as Khamis Brigade) in its place.

By most accounts, Khamis was competent, loyal to his father, and maintained good relationships with his siblings.

He was especially close to his reformist older brother Saif al-Islam and spent considerable time with him in the early phase of the Arab Spring.

Khamis Gaddafi (27 May 1983 – 29 August 2011) was the seventh and youngest son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and the military commander in charge of the Khamis Brigade of the Libyan Army.

He was part of his father's inner circle.

At age three, Khamis Gaddafi was injured in the 15 April 1986 U.S. bombing of Libya, suffering head injuries when the Bab al-Azizia military compound was attacked in retaliation for the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing.

He graduated from the military academy in Tripoli, receiving a bachelor's degree in military arts and science, further graduating from the Frunze Military Academy in Moscow and the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia.

Khamis, who was said to be uninterested in politics, rose in prominence in the 2000s due to the exile of his older brother Mutassim, who was sent to Egypt in 2001 after being accused by senior officials of plotting to seize power from his father.

In 2008, Gaddafi visited Algeria, where he was received by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

In April 2010, he began a master's degree at the IE Business School (formerly known as Instituto de Empresa), in Madrid.

During the Libyan Civil War in 2011, he was a major target for opposition forces trying to overthrow his father.

However, he was expelled by the institution in March 2011 for "his links to the attacks against the Libyan population".

In early 2011, Gaddafi worked as an intern at AECOM Technology Corporation.

According to Paul Gennaro, AECOM's Senior Vice President for Global Communications, Gaddafi was touring the United States in February 2011 as part of his internship, including visiting military sites and landmarks.

This trip was cut short on 17 February after the Libyan Civil War began, and Gaddafi returned to Libya.

U.S. government officials later denied any role in planning, advising or paying for the trip.

After hurrying back to Libya to aid his father in the civil war, Khamis Gaddafi commanded the assault on Zawiya, leading the Khamis Brigade, a special forces brigade of the Libyan Armed Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi.

The battle resulted in pro-Gaddafi forces retaking the city.

He also assisted in suppressing anti-regime demonstrations in and around the capital Tripoli in late February-early March.

His forces also took part in the Battle of Misrata.

In June 2011, he was reported to be commanding pro-Gaddafi forces in Zliten by a soldier captured from his brigade who also reported that Khamis Gaddafi had told his troops to "take Misrata or I will kill you myself. If you don't take Misrata, we are finished."

On 20 March 2011, it was reported by the anti-Gaddafi Al Manara Media that Khamis Gaddafi had died from injuries sustained when pilot Muhammad Mokhtar Osman allegedly crashed his plane into Bab al-Azizia a week earlier.

This was not confirmed by any independent news source.

The crashing of the plane itself had also not been previously reported or confirmed by any other independent media except Al Manara and the Algerian Shuruk newspaper, which is closely connected to Al Manara, and with it there is a possibility of the reports being part of the propaganda operations by the opposition.

The pro-Gaddafi Libyan government subsequently denied that he was killed on 21 March.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that she was aware of reports that one of Gaddafi's sons had been killed in non-coalition air strikes, after hearing them from "many different sources", but that the "evidence is not sufficient" for her to confirm this.

On 25 March 2011, Al Arabiya television reported that a source had confirmed the death of Khamis Gaddafi, though others including Al Jazeera continued to call it a rumour.

On 29 March 2011, the Libyan government showed footage of what it said was live footage of Khamis Gaddafi greeting supporters in Tripoli, in an attempt to refute the claims, though it had used false live images before and these images were not verified.

On 9 June 2011, a captured pro-Gaddafi soldier in Misrata told the rebels that Khamis Gaddafi was alive in Zliten, and was leading the soldiers there.

On 5 August 2011, citing spies operating among the ranks of forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, Mohammed Zawawi, a spokesman for the United Revolutionary Forces, told the Agence France Press news agency that Khamis Gaddafi had been killed overnight, stating that "there was an aircraft attack by NATO on the Gaddafi operations room in Zliten and there are around 32 Gaddafi troops killed. One of them is Khamis."

This report was officially denied by Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim.

"It's false news. They invented the news about Mr. Khamis Gaddafi in Zliten to cover up their killing," Ibrahim told Reuters in Tripoli.

"This is a dirty trick to cover up their crime in Zliten and the killing of the al-Marabit family."

NATO was also unable to confirm the reports of Khamis's death.

On 9 August, a man who appeared to be Khamis Gaddafi was on Libyan state television speaking to a woman who had allegedly been severely injured by a NATO airstrike.

On 22 August, Al Jazeera reported that the bodies of both Khamis Gaddafi and his father's intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi may have been discovered in Tripoli during the battle for the city.

However, a rebel commander later stated that he believed Khamis Gaddafi was in Bab al-Azizia.

Senussi was found alive and captured in Mauritania on 17 March 2012, and was extradited to Libya on 5 September for trial.

On 29 August, it was reported that anti-Gaddafi fighters 60 km south of Tripoli claimed that a NATO Apache helicopter had fired on Khamis Gaddafi's Toyota Land Cruiser, destroying the vehicle.

A man who claimed to be Khamis Gaddafi's bodyguard said he had been killed.