Bab al-Azizia (Arabic: باب العزيزية, romanized: Bāb al ‘Azīzīyah,[1] Libyan pronunciation: [bæːb əl ʕæziːˈzijjæ], lit.

The 6-square-kilometre (2.3 sq mi) base[2] is strategically located south of Tripoli city center at the northern end of Airport Highway, allowing easy access to government assets within the city as well as direct high-speed road access to Tripoli International Airport.

[7] The buildings were connected by extensive networks of tunnels[8] that lead to adjoining districts and possibly stretched to the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, which is 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi) away, and elsewhere in the city of Tripoli.

It was described by US intelligence reports published via WikiLeaks as "not lavish in any way compared with the ostentation of the Gulf-oil-state families or Hariri clan [in Lebanon].

Forewarned by both Maltese Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici and Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi[13] that unauthorized aircraft were flying over Maltese airspace heading south towards Tripoli, Gaddafi and his family rushed out of their residence in the compound moments before the bombs dropped from thirteen U.S. Air Force planes.

[citation needed] To express defiance over the bombing, a monument was erected at the compound depicting a left-handed fist crushing a U.S. fighter jet.

[19][20] In August, at the height of the Battle of Tripoli, Bab al-Azizia became one of the last strongholds of loyalist forces in the capital, along with the Rixos Al Nasr hotel.

[25] Al Arabiya reported that several families had set up makeshift homes in the former compound due to high living costs elsewhere.