River circled by pilot, I gathered, in capital city (7)
I believe the answer is:
tripoli
'capital city' is the definition.
(capital city of Libya)
'river circled by pilot i gathered' is the wordplay.
'river' becomes 'r' (abbreviation for river).
'circled by' is an insertion indicator (I've seen this in other clues).
'gathered' is an anagram indicator.
'pilot'+'i'='piloti'
'piloti' with letters rearranged gives 'tipoli'.
'r' placed within 'tipoli' is 'TRIPOLI'.
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for tripoli that I've seen before include "where there's been regime change" , "Port city of Lebanon" , "Libyan port" , "Middle East port" , "North African port" .)