Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of Libya’s former leader Muammar Gaddafi, has been killed in the western Libyan city of Zintan, where he had lived for several years.

An Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent in Libya, Ahmed Khalifa, reported on Tuesday that Saif al-Islam was believed to have been shot dead in the city, where he had been based for about a decade.

His death was confirmed by his political adviser, Abdullah Othman. However, the identity of the attackers and the circumstances surrounding the killing remain unclear. Libyan authorities have yet to issue an official statement on the incident.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, 53, never held a formal government position but was widely regarded as his father’s second-in-command between 2000 and 2011.

In 2011, Muammar Gaddafi was killed by opposition forces during the uprising that ended his decades-long rule.

Following the collapse of the regime, Saif al-Islam was captured and imprisoned in Zintan in 2011 before being released in 2017.