How It Happened: Gaddafi’s Aide Recalls Origins of 2011 ‘Revolution’ That Destroyed Libya

Monday marks the tenth anniversary of the start of the Libyan ‘Revolution’ – a series of uprisings that culminated in a NATO intervention and the country’s division into a number of unstable statelets. In an exclusive interview with our correspondent Ahmed Gaddaf al-Dam, cousin and close aide to former President Muammar Gaddafi, recalled the events of 2011 that turned his country from one of the most prosperous African nations into a failed state.

“For the sake of fairness, there should be an investigation into what happened in Libya,” Gaddaf al-Dam said.

“Libya was not a threat to world peace to merit a Security Council intervention of this nature,” the former official added, recalling the 2011 Security Council Resolution which demanded an immediate ceasefire, and established a no-fly zone over the country.

“Even then, the Security Council did not stipulate an attack on Libya with this massive number of warplanes – 40 thousand airstrikes, and tens of thousands of missiles from land and sea,” Gaddaf al-Dam stressed.

Characterising the brutal, 20 October 2011 killing of Gaddafi as “a war crime”, Gaddaf al-Dam says an investigation must be carried out to determine who is responsible for his murder. “Today we want to know the truth,” he said.

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Muammar Gaddafi, the deposed leader of Libya, was captured and killed on 20 October 2011 during the Battle of Sirte. Gaddafi was found hiding in a culvert west of Sirte and captured by National Transitional Council (NTC) forces. He was killed shortly afterwards. The NTC initially claimed he died from injuries sustained in a firefight when loyalist forces attempted to free him, although a graphic video of his last moments show rebel fighters beating him and one of them sodomizing him with a bayonet before he was shot several times.