Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the late son of former Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of former Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi, has been killed in Libya, according to his political team and local media.

Gaddafi`s lawyer, Khaled al-Zaidi, and political advisor Abdulla Othman announced the 53-year-old`s death in separate posts on Facebook on Tuesday, without providing further details.

Libyan news outlet Fawasel Media cited Othman as saying that armed men killed Gaddafi at his home in Zintan, roughly 136 kilometers (85 miles) southwest of Tripoli.

His political team stated that "four masked men" stormed his residence in a "cowardly and treacherous assassination." The statement added that Gaddafi confronted the assailants, who had shut off the security cameras "in a desperate attempt to conceal traces of their heinous crimes."

Khaled al-Mishri, former head of the Tripoli-based High State Council, called for an "urgent and transparent investigation" into the killing via social media.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, born in June 1972 in Tripoli, was considered the second-most powerful figure in Libya before his father`s death in 2011, although he never held an official government position.

During the 2011 uprising against Muammar Gaddafi`s rule, Saif al-Islam became a central figure in the crackdown on opposition forces, warning that "rivers of blood would flow" and that the government would fight "to the last man, woman and bullet."

He faced multiple allegations of torture and violence, was placed on a United Nations sanctions list, and was wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity.

Captured while attempting to flee to Niger in 2011, Gaddafi was imprisoned in Zintan and sentenced to death in absentia by a Tripoli court in 2015. He was released in 2017 under a general pardon and lived in Zintan in relative obscurity to avoid assassination.