Gaddafi was the youngest child born to a nomadic Bedouin peasant family living in the desert around Sirte. He received a traditional religious primary school education. From 1956 he attended the Serbha preparatory school in Sidra. He was an excellent student who quickly took up the nationalist Arab cause and became politically active. He was expelled in 1961 for his political activities.
In 1963 he entered the Benghazi Military Academy. It was here that he and a few of his fellow militants organized a secretive group dedicated to overthrowing the pro-Western Libyan monarchy. After he graduated in 1965, he was sent to Britain for further training. He returned a year later as a commissioned officer in the Signal Corps.
On 1 September 1969 Colonel Qaddafi and other young officer conspirators staged a bloodless and unopposed coup d’etat in Tripoli against King Idris I who was out of the country on a visit to Turkey. For a short time afterwards there was a power struggle between Qaddafi and his young supporters and older senior officers and civilians. By January 1970 his faction had received support from Egypt and had eliminated their opponents. Qaddafi assumed power and named the country the Libyan Arab Republic. He firstly ruled as president of the Revolutionary Command Council until 1977 when he switched to the title of president of People's General Congress. Two years later he renounced all official titles but remained the de facto head of the Libyan government.
Qaddafi politics were a blend of Arab nationalism and social welfare state. He described this as “direct, popular democracy” and named it “Islamic socialism.” He outlined his political philosophy in his Green Book published in 1976. All this is not quite as idealistic as this suggests, since Qaddafi is not above using violence and repressive tactics when and if his regime is threatened. He has called for political assassination as a tool and has sent agents to carry out his wishes.
He is a fervent supporter of unity of all Arab states into a single Arab nation. Following Egyptian President Nasser’s death he attempted to take on the mantle of ideological leader of Arab nationalism. In 1972 he proclaimed the “Federation of Arab Republics (Egypt, Libya and Syria). Two years later he tried again with a proposal to merge Tunisia and Libya. Both these failed. Qaddafi has also called for the creation of a Saharan Islamic state.
He has provided general support for almost any liberation movements that cared to contact him but his support for the Palestine Liberation Organization has been particularly strong although it has caused a rift between himself and Egypt. Finding his efforts for pan Arab alliances faltering he turned to the Soviet Union for support and military aid. Although Libya became the first recipient of MiG-25 fighters outside the Soviet bloc relations were never warm and could be characterized as distant.
He was widely regarded in the West as the principal financier of international terrorism. Amongst other events Libya has been implicated in support for Black September and their massacre at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games and the bombing, in 1986, of the Berlin discotheque. This latter event resulted in three deaths and over two hundred wounded including a substantial number of American servicemen.
When Ronald Reagan came to power his administration saw Libya as an unacceptable player on the international stage because of support for such terrorist activities. At first it imposed economic sanctions but in January and March 1986 this flared into open conflict. The U.S. attacked Libyan patrol boats during clashes over access to the Gulf of Sidra; Libya claimed this as territorial waters the Americans did not accept this.
On 14 April 1986 President Reagan ordered major bombing raids, called Operation El Dorado Canyon against targets in Tripoli and Benghazi. The United States accused Libya with direct involvement in the Berlin bombings and the resulting deaths. The raids killed sixty; amongst the victims was Qaddafi’s adopted daughter.
During the 1990s Libya endured economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation as a result of his refusal to hand over two Libyans accused of planting a bomb on Pan Am Flight 103 which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland.
Since his isolation Qaddafi has managed to improve his connections among Middle Eastern nations and is today considered a much more moderate and responsible leader in the Arab world. At the same time he has emerged as a popular Africa leader. Finally he has done much to improve his relationship with the West. This had included his admission his country had had an active weapons of mass destruction programme. International inspectors have identified considerable quantities of equipment and material and an active programme of destruction is going ahead
In February 2011, following revolutions in neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia, protests against Gaddafi's rule began. These escalated into an uprising that spread across the country, with the forces opposing Gaddafi establishing a government based in Benghazi named the National Transitional Council (NTC). This led to the 2011 Libyan Civil War, which included a military intervention by a NATO-led coalition to enforce a UN Security Council Resolution 1973 calling for a no-fly zone and protection of civilians in Libya. The assets of Gaddafi and his family were frozen, and both Interpol and the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on 27 June for Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam, and his brother-in-law Abdullah al-Senussi, concerning crimes against humanity. Gaddafi and his forces lost the Battle of Tripoli in August, and on 16 September 2011 the NTC took Libya's seat at the UN, replacing Gaddafi. Gaddafi retained control over parts of Libya, most notably the city of Sirte, to which it was presumed that he had fled. Although Gaddafi's forces initially held out against the NTC's advances, Gaddafi was captured as Sirte fell to the rebel forces on 20 October 2011, and shot dead soon after.
