Gaddafi – A Life in Pictures Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-
Gaddafi (Arabic: مُعَمَّر القَذَّافِي Muʿammar al-Qaḏḏāfī About
this sound audio (help·info);[variations] (June 1942[nb 1] – 20
October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi play /ˈmoʊ.əmɑr
ɡəˈdɑːfi/ or Colonel Gaddafi, was Libya's head of state from
1969, when he seized power in a bloodless military coup, until
1977, when he stepped down from his official executive role as
Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council of Libya, and
claimed subsequently to be merely a symbolic figurehead. Critics
have often described him as Libya's de facto autocrat, a claim
his Libyan regime officially denied. In 2011, the Libyan Arab
Jamahiriya regime he established was overthrown in a civil war
which consisted of an uprising aided by a NATO intervention. His
42-year leadership prior to the uprising made him the fourth
longest-serving non-royal leader since 1900, as well as the
longest-serving Arab leader. He variously styled himself as "the
Brother Leader" and