Yet here was a man defined by 14 years of evasion greeting us like a host at a casual retreat. We drove for an hour as the smooth hum of tires surrendered to the violent jolting of the desert track. He was dressed for a casual outing: trousers and an undershirt in muted military tones, paired with heavy desert boots. A man nearby, his face etched by the desert, whispered the essence of the day: “We were denied the right to say farewell to the father. A general of the 2011 revolution, al-Atiri was the man who had captured Saif in the desert 15 years earlier.

Source: Libya Today March 12, 2026 14:23 UTC