Official Name: | Zintan |
Native Name: | Zintan / Arabic: الزنتان |
Settlement Type: | City |
Pushpin Map: | Libya |
Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in Libya |
Subdivision Type: | Country |
Subdivision Name: | Libya |
Subdivision Type1: | Region |
Subdivision Name1: | Tripolitania |
Subdivision Type2: | District |
Subdivision Name2: | Jabal al Gharbi |
Population Footnotes: | [1] |
Population As Of: | 2011 |
Population Total: | 16024 |
Population Blank1 Title: | Demonym |
Population Blank1: | Zintani |
Timezone: | EET |
Utc Offset: | +2 |
Coordinates: | 31.9306°N 12.2483°W |
Registration Plate Type: | License Plate Code |
Registration Plate: | 42 |
Zintan (Arabic: الزنتان, meaning "small castles") is a city in northwestern Libya, situated roughly southwest of Tripoli, in the area. The city and its surrounding area has a population of 16,024.
The Roman garrison town of Tentheos was on the Nafusa mountain range in the hinterland of the Limes Tripolitanus, near the border.[2]
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 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]