Muammar Gaddafi: a life in pictures

1971: A young Muammar Gaddafi in army fatigues Photograph: Terence Spencer/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

July 1973: Gaddafi waves to demonstrators gathered in Benghazi to show support for his return to office after he resigned as leader of the Revolutionary Command Council. The council refused to accept his resignation
Photograph: Geneviève Chauvel/Sygma/Corbis

August 1973: Gaddafi prays in the Libyan desert near Sirte
Photograph: Geneviève Chauvel/Sygma/Corbis

November 1973: Gaddafi is jostled by press and TV reporters outside the Élysée palace in Paris after talks with President Georges Pompidou
Photograph: Agence France Presse/Getty Images

1977: Gaddafi with Cuban leader Fidel Castro Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features

November 1978: Gaddafi arrives at the 1978 Arab summit in Baghdad for Arab countries opposed to Egyptian president Anwar Sadat's decision to sign the Camp David agreement with Israel. The summit resulted in Egypt's suspension from the Arab League Photograph: Jacques Pavlovsky/Corbis

August 1981: Gaddafi attends a graduation at the women's military academy in Tripoli. The academy opened in 1979 during Gaddafi's push to include women in Libya's armed forces
Photograph: Christine Spengler/Sygma/Corbis

1986: Posters of Gaddafi and Uncle Sam on a wall in Libya. The US accused Libya of masterminding a bombing in west Berlin in 1985. Tensions culminated in a US air and sea bombing raid on Libya in March 1986
Photograph: Shepard Sherbell/Corbis Saba

September 1987: Gaddafi appears at a parade in Tripoli to commemorate the 18th anniversary of the Libyan revolution
Photograph: Bernard Bisson/Sygma/Corbis

September 1987: Gaddafi speaking in Tripoli at a parade to commemorate the 18th anniversary of the Libyan revolution
Photograph: Bernard Bisson/Sygma/Corbis

December 1988: The nose section of Pan Am flight 103 lies in a field outside the village of Lockerbie in Scotland Photograph: Martin Cleaver/AP

September 1990: Gaddafi attends a summit in Djanet, Algeria
Photograph: Bernard Bisson/Sygma/Corbis

1992: Gaddafi visits Palestine Liberation Organisation leader Yasser Arafat in hospital after Arafat was injured in an air crash Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features

February 2001: Gaddafi with Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, who was tried at a special Scottish court in the Netherlands with Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on murder charges relating to the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie. Al-Megrahi was sentenced to life in jail, while Fhimah was acquitted Photograph: Amr Nabil/AP

March 2004: Gaddafi with Tony Blair. The prime minister's visit to Libya followed Gaddafi's agreement to dismantle Libya's arms programme, accept responsibility for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and for the 1984 murder in London of WPC Yvonne Fletcher
Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

June 2009: Gaddafi with Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi at Ciampino airport in Rome
Photograph: Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters/Corbis

June 2009: Gaddafi waves to photographers as he signs autographs after giving a speech in Rome to women from the business, political and cultural sectors
Photograph: Christophe Simon/AFP/Getty Images

July 2009: Gaddafi gives a thumbs up before a roundtable session at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy Photograph: Chris Wattie/Reuters

September 2009: Gaddafi arrives for a parade in Tripoli's Green Square to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the military coup that brought him to power Photograph: Ben Curtis/AP

February 2011: Gaddafi attends a ceremony in Tripoli to mark the birth of the prophet Muhammad Photograph: Ismail Zitouny/Reuters

22 February 2011: Gaddafi addresses the Libyan nation on state television, vowing to fight protesters and die a martyr Photograph: AP

10 April 2011: Gaddafi cheers his supporters after a meeting with a delegation of five African leaders at his Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli Photograph: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters

12 June 2011: A TV still of Muammar Gaddafi during a meeting with Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, president of the World Chess Federation, in Tripoli Photograph: Fide Press Service/EPA