Editing Muammar Gaddafi (section)

===Childhood: 1940s to 1950===
Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi<ref name="iccwarrant">{{cite web |title=The Prosecutor v. Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi and Abdullah al-Senussi |url=http://www.icc-cpi.int/en_menus/icc/situations%20and%20cases/situations/icc0111/related%20cases/icc01110111/Pages/icc01110111.aspx |work=ICC-01/11-01/11 |publisher=International Criminal Court |access-date=5 December 2013 |date=11 November 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161113152832/https://www.icc-cpi.int/libya/gaddafi?ln=en |archive-date=13 November 2016 }}</ref> was born near [[Qasr Abu Hadi]], a rural area outside the town of [[Sirte]] in the deserts of [[Tripolitania]], Italian western Libya.{{sfnm|1a1=Blundy|1a2=Lycett|1y=1987|1p=33|2a1=Kawczynski|2y=2011|2p=9|3a1=St. John|3y=2012|3p=135}} His family came from a small, relatively uninfluential tribe called the [[Qadhadhfa]],{{sfnm|1a1=Bearman|1y=1986|1p=58|2a1=Blundy|2a2=Lycett|2y=1987|2p=33|3a1=Simons|3y=1996|3p=170|4a1=Kawczynski|4y=2011|4p=9}} who were [[Arabs|Arab]] in heritage. His mother was Aisha bint Niran, and his father, Mohammad Abdul Salam bin Hamed bin Mohammad, was known as Abu Meniar; the latter earned a meager subsistence as a goat and camel herder.{{sfnm|1a1=Bearman|1y=1986|1p=58|2a1=Blundy|2a2=Lycett|2y=1987|2p=33|3a1=Kawczynski|3y=2011|3p=9}}

Like other contemporary nomadic [[Bedouin]] tribes, the family were illiterate and did not keep any birth records.{{sfnm|1a1=Blundy|1a2=Lycett|1y=1987|1p=35|2a1=Kawczynski|2y=2011|2p=9|3a1=St. John|3y=2012|3p=135}} His birthday is not known with certainty and sources have set it in 1942 or the spring of 1943,{{sfnm|1a1=Blundy|1a2=Lycett|1y=1987|1p=35|2a1=Kawczynski|2y=2011|2p=9|3a1=St. John|3y=2012|3p=135}} although his biographers [[David Blundy]] and [[Andrew Lycett]] noted that it could have been pre-1940.{{sfn|Blundy|Lycett|1987|p=35}} His parents' only surviving son, he had three older sisters.{{sfnm|1a1=Blundy|1a2=Lycett|1y=1987|1p=35|2a1=Kawczynski|2y=2011|2p=9|3a1=St. John|3y=2012|3p=135}} Gaddafi's upbringing in Bedouin culture influenced his personal tastes; he preferred the desert over the city and would retreat there to meditate.{{sfnm|1a1=Kawczynski|1y=2011|1p=9|2a1=St. John|2y=2012|2p=135}}

From childhood, Gaddafi was aware of the involvement of European colonial powers in Libya; his nation was [[Italian Libya|occupied by Italy]], and during the [[North African Campaign]] of the [[Second World War]] it witnessed conflict between Italian and British forces.{{sfnm|1a1=Blundy|1a2=Lycett|1y=1987|1pp=35–37|2a1=St. John|2y=2012|2p=135}} According to later claims, Gaddafi's paternal grandfather, Abdessalam Bouminyar, was killed by the Italian Army during the [[Italo-Turkish War|Italian invasion of 1911]].{{sfnm|1a1=Bianco|1y=1975|1p=4|2a1=Blundy|2a2=Lycett|2y=1987|2p=37|3a1=Kawczynski|3y=2011|3p=4}} At the end of the Second World War in 1945, Libya was occupied by British and French forces. Britain and France considered dividing the nation between their empires, but the [[United Nations General Assembly|General Assembly]] of the United Nations (UN) decided that the country was to be granted political independence,{{sfnm|1a1=Blundy|1a2=Lycett|1y=1987|1pp=38–39|2a1=Kawczynski|2y=2011|2pp=7–9, 14|3a1=St. John|3y=2012|3p=108}} and in 1951 created the [[United Kingdom of Libya]], a federal state under the leadership of a pro-Western monarch, [[Idris of Libya|Idris]], who banned political parties and centralized power in his own hands.{{sfnm|1a1=Blundy|1a2=Lycett|1y=1987|1pp=38–39|2a1=Kawczynski|2y=2011|2pp=7–9, 14|3a1=St. John|3y=2012|3p=108}}