Background
He was born in 1944, in a small village in Tripolitania.
He was born in 1944, in a small village in Tripolitania.
Educated at Tripoli before Joining the Military College where he trained with Qadafi and was commissioned on August 9, 1965.
Promoted lieutenant in August 1967 and then captain in August 1969, he was on a military mission to Cairo at the time of the revolution. There he was able to secure the immediate support from the Egyptian leader for a take-over modelled on Nasser’s own strategy. On bis return to Libya he became a close companion of Qadafi and accompanied bim to a conference at Rabat, Morocco, m December 1969. He stayed outside government for the first year but undertook special assignments for Qadafi including being at his side on visits to Syria and Iraq in August 1970.
From September 1970 until August 1971 he was in government as Minister of Communications, a post for which he bad little enthusiasm or aptitude. He "'as more at ease outside day-to-day administration as a member of the RCC taking a broader look at the direction of Libyan policy. Although he was present at the unity agreement with Egypt on September 18, 1972, he took very little part in the negotiations.