Zintan

Zintan Zintan / الزنتان
City
Zintan Location in Libya
Coordinates: 31°55′50″N 12°14′54″E
Country	Libya
Region	Tripolitania
District	Jabal al Gharbi
Population  (2011)[1]
• Total	16,024
• Demonym	Zintani
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
License Plate Code	42

Zintan (Arabic: الزنتان, meaning "small castles") is a city in northwestern Libya, situated roughly 136 kilometres (85 mi) southwest of Tripoli, in the area. The city and its surrounding area has a population of 16,024.

History

The Roman garrison town of Tentheos was on the Nafusa mountain range in the hinterland of the Limes Tripolitanus, near the border.^[2]

Civil War activity

Groups from Zintan joined in the Libyan Civil War in 2011. The Battle of Zintan reportedly began when the Gaddafi-led government forces arrived to recruit 1,000 soldiers. Insulted by the proposal to fight fellow Libyans, a group formed in Zintan to protest. As the group grew, pro-Gaddafi forces attacked but local groups counterattacked with seized weapons, "rout[ing]" a large, heavily armed government convoy on 19–20 March.^[3][4]

The Zintan people were responsible for the capture of Saif al-Islam, the second son of Muammar Gaddafi.^[5] He was captured on 19 November 2011, a month after his father's death, about 50 kilometres (31 mi) west of the town of Ubari near Sabha in southern Libya.^[6]

In 2015, during the Second Libyan Civil War, the area was damaged by a series of airstrikes from February to April.^[7]

Notable people

• Osama al-Juwaili (born 1961), politician

See also

• Tripolitania

References

1. World Gazetteer. "Libya: largest cities and towns and statistics of their population". Archived from the original on 2012-12-04. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
2. Olwen Hackett, David John Smith: Ghirza. A Libyan settlement in the Roman period. Department of Antiquities, Tripoli 1984, S. 33.
3. Gadhafi retakes oil port in rebel-held east Libya Archived May 31, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
4. Libyan rebels drive back government troops advancing on town of Zintan Archived June 3, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
5. "How Saif al-Islam was captured". BBC News. 20 November 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
6. "Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam captured in Libya". BBC. 19 November 2011. Archived from the original on 2013-10-15. Retrieved 19 November 2011.
7. Kirtpatrick, David D. (17 February 2015). "Islamist Faction in Libya Now Strikes From the Sky". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-04-08.

31°55′50″N 12°14′54″E