Sporting a full beard and army fatigues, Hisham Khalf’s eyes shone as he prepared to board the plane to Tripoli to join his comrades celebrating the death of ousted dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Carrying a big tri-colour flag of the revolution, the 36-year-old was disappointed he had missed the first day of the celebrations, but was sure there would be plenty more revelry ahead after 42 years of iron-fisted rule.
On board the Medavia plane from Malta to Tripoli on Friday, he told The Sunday Times how he had been fighting to take over Gaddafi’s compound in Bab al-Aziziya when he was injured and had to fly back home to the UK for treatment.
A mobile phone engineer by profession, Mr Khalf had just finished high school when he fled to Malta in 1993 to escape military conscription. He spent four years living in Buġibba before settling down in Wigan, in the UK, where he is married with four children aged seven, five, four and four months.
When the conflict started in February he felt he had to return to his homeland. He packed his bags and set off for Libya where he joined the rebels for weeks of intensive training in the mountains, as he had never fought before.
“I felt it was my duty to return and join the fight to topple Gaddafi. Training how to fight turned out to be very simple.
“Before you reach the frontline you’re scared, but once you’re there you lose all your fear,” Mr Khalf said, speaking English, tinged with an Arabic accent, and occasionally slipping in a word of Maltese.
So as not to worry his wife, he never mentioned fighting, telling her only that he would help deliver food and aid. But that was until she spotted him on Sky News brandishing a gun. He called her from Al-Zawiyah and told her to take care of the children and pray.
His war trophy is Hannibal Gaddafi’s mobile phone, which he took when they raided his house, and he now carries it in his pocket most of the time.
He welcomed the death of Muammar Gaddafi and he is not disappointed that the former leader will not have the chance to stand trial for the atrocities he carried out.
“The fact he was killed was the best thing that could have happened for the Libyan people,” he said, as he descended from the plane and set off for his hometown in Suq al Jum’a waving his flag to cheers from bystanders.