Muammar Gaddafi - Marriages and Children

Marriages and Children

Gaddafi's first wife was Fatiha al-Nuri (1969–1970). His second wife was Safia Farkash (1970–2011), née el-Brasai, a former nurse from Obeidat tribe born in Bayda. He met her in 1969, following the revolt, when he was hospitalized with appendicitis; the couple remained married until his death. Gaddafi had eight biological children, seven of them sons.

• Muhammad Gaddafi (born 1970), his eldest son, was the only child born to Gaddafi's first wife, and ran the Libyan Olympic Committee.

• Saif al-Islam Gaddafi (born 25 June 1972), his second son, is an architect who was long-rumoured to be Gaddafi's successor. He was a spokesman to the Western world and he has negotiated treaties with Italy and the United States. He was viewed as politically moderate, and in 2006, after criticizing his father's government, he briefly left Libya.

• Al-Saadi Gaddafi (born 25 May 1973), is a professional football player. Al-Saadi is currently living in Niger.

• Mutassim Gaddafi (18 December 1974 – 20 October 2011), Gaddafi's fourth son, was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Libyan Army. He later served as Libya's National Security Advisor. He was seen as a possible successor to his father, after Saif al-Islam. Mutassim was killed along with his father during the Battle of Sirte.

• Hannibal Muammar Gaddafi (born 20 September 1975), is a former employee of the General National Maritime Transport Company, a company that specialized in oil exports.

• Ayesha Gaddafi (born 1976), Gaddafi's only biological daughter, is a lawyer who joined the defence teams of executed former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi. She is married to her father's cousin. She fled to neighbouring Algeria with her mother and two of her brothers, where she gave birth to her fourth child.

• Saif al-Arab Gaddafi (1982 – 30 April 2011) was appointed a military commander in the Libyan Army during the Libyan civil war. Saif al-Arab and three of Gaddafi's grandchildren were killed by a NATO bombing in April 2011.

• Khamis Gaddafi (27 May 1983), his seventh son, was serving as the commander of the Libyan Army's elite Khamis Brigade. He was reported captured or killed on several different occasions during the Libyan revolution.

He is also said to have adopted two children, Hanna and Milad.

• Hana Moammar Gadafi (claimed by Gaddafi to be his adopted daughter, but most facts surrounding this claim are disputed) was apparently killed at the age of four, during the retaliatory U.S. bombing raids in 1986. She may not have died; the adoption may have been posthumous; or he may have adopted a second daughter and given her the same name after the first one died. Following the taking by rebels of the family residence in the Bab al-Azizia compound in Tripoli, The New York Times reported evidence (complete with photographs) of Hana's life after her declared death, when she became a doctor and worked in a Tripoli hospital. Her passport was reported as showing a birth date of 11 November 1985, making her six months old at the time of the US raid. In August 2011 the Daily Telegraph reported on the finding of dental records relating to a Hana Gaddaffi by NLC staff taking over the London embassy. This report, which also cites her 1999 spotting by Chinese officials, cites an unnamed Libyan government spokesman as stating that Gaddafi had adopted a second daughter, and named her Hana in honor of the first one who had been killed in the 1986 raid.

Gaddafi's brother-in-law, Abdullah Senussi, was believed to have headed Libya's military intelligence until the Gaddafi government was overthrown.