Moammar Gaddafi through the years

Moammar Gaddafi has ruled Libya for more than 40 years. Now, he is strongly rejecting opposition demands that he give up power, as anti-government demonstrators continue to push for his ouster.

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1970

Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi is shown in uniform in this 1970 photo. He has controlled Libya since he came to power in a bloodless 1969 military coup.

/ AP

June 25, 1970

Col. Moammar Gaddafi, head of the Libyan revolutionary command council, addresses a crowd at the stadium of Benghazi, Libya, in 1970. The address celebrated the evacuation of U.S. troops from Libyan territory.

/ AP

Aug. 18, 1971

President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, left, Col. Moammar Gaddafi of Libya, center, and Gen. Hafez Assad of Syria are shown during a 1971reception in Damascus.

/ AP

Oct. 10, 1976

Col. Moammar Gaddafi, president of Libya, waves to a crowd as he rides a horse during a ceremony in Ajdabia, Libya. The 1976 celebration marks the sixth anniversary of the eviction of Italians from Libya.

/ AP

Feb. 9, 1977

Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gaddafi addressing the massive rally at the Martyrs square at Tripoli in 1977.

Arna Of Tripoli / AP

Dec. 4, 1977

Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, right, raises his hand in a salute to delegates, with Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, center, and PLO leader George Habash, at the Arab Nations Summit in 1977.

/ AP

Sept. 1, 1987

Gaddafi holds a baton as he sits to review Libyan troops during the 18th anniversary celebration of Libya's revolution in Tripoli.

John Redman / AP

Aug. 20, 1990

Gaddafi instructs journalists to take their seats at a 1990 news conference in Tripoli. He flew in more than 100 foreign journalists to condemn U.S. intervention in the Gulf region.

Axel Schulz-Eppers / AP

Oct. 4, 1995

Gaddafi waves to Palestinian workers expelled from Libya and Libyan supporters upon his 1995 arrival at a camp set up in no-man's land on the Libyan-Egyptian border under Libyan jurisdiction. Gaddafi had been enforcing a policy to expel Palestinian workers and their families as a gesture against the Israeli-PLO agreements.

Mohamed El-Dakhakhny / AP

June 22, 1996

Gaddafi puts his arm around Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak at Cairo airport in 1996. Recent anti-government demonstrations in the Middle East that removed Mubarak from power in Egypt are currently threatening Gaddafi's hold on power in Libya.

Enric Marti / AP

Aug. 31, 1996

Gaddafi is joined by the U.S. Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, left, as he opens a new hospital in Tripoli in 1996.

Lino Azzopardi / AP

Sept. 1, 1996

Gaddafi is surrounded by unidentified guests and aides during ceremonies in Tripoli to mark the 27th anniversary of the 1969 coup that brought him to power.

Lino Azzopardi / AP

Dec. 2, 1997

Gaddafi and his wife, Safiya, in 1997.

Dimitri Messinis / AP

April 3, 2000

Gaddafi, center, Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi, left, and Togo President Gnassingbe Eyadema listen to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during the opening session of the Africa-Europe summit in Cairo in 2000.

Enric Marti / AP

Aug. 2, 2000

Gaddafi, left, is welcomed by Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunis in 2000.

/ AP

Oct. 5, 2000

Jordan's King Abdullah II, right, escorts Gaddafi, left, to Amman's town hall center to attend a state celebration hosted in Gaddafi's honor in 2000.

/ AP

Feb. 5, 2001

Gaddafi gestures in front of a statue representing a hand catching a U.S warplane near his home in Tripoli in 2001. In a 2009 address before the U.N. General Assembly, Gaddafi lambasted the U.S. over the war in Iraq, and said former president George W. Bush should be tried for war crimes.

Amr Nabil / AP

Feb. 10, 2004

Gaddafi laughs in a tent while meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Sirt, Libya, in 2004.

John Moore / AP

March 25, 2004

U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, left, walks with Gaddafi, right, outside Gaddafi's tent in Tripoli in 2004.

Alastair Grant / AP

June 10, 2008

Gaddafi embraces Tunisia's then-President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali at an Arab mini-summit, in the Tripoli in 2008. U.S. State Department cables from 2009 released by WikiLeaks detailed Gaddafi's fear of flying and tendency to travel with a "voluptous blonde" Ukranian nurse who "knows his routine."

Abdel Meguid Al-Fergany / AP

Sept. 5, 2008

Gaddafi meets with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Tripoli in 2008.

Nasser Nasser / AP

July 9, 2009

U.S. President Obama and Gaddafi meet during the 2009 G-8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy.

Michael Gottschalk / AP

Sept. 1, 2009

Gaddafi takes his seat behind bulletproof glass for a military parade in Tripoli in 2009. Libyan protesters this week celebrated in the streets of Benghazi claiming control of the country's second largest city after bloody fighting. Anti-government unrest spread to the capital with clashes in Tripoli's main square for the first time. Gaddafi's son vowed his father and security forces would fight "until the last bullet."

Ben Curtis / AP

Feb. 25, 2010

Gaddafi is seen during prayers after delivering a speech in the city of Benghazi, Libya, in 2010. Libyan special forces stormed a two-day-old protest in Benghazi, clearing the area this past Saturday, said witnesses. A human rights group estimated scores of people died in the harsh crackdown.

Abdel Meguid Al-Fergany / AP

This image broadcast on Libyan state television early Tuesday shows Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, who appeared for less than a minute on state television and made brief remarks to say he was in the capital, Tripoli. He denied rumors he fled to Venezuela amid the unrest sweeping his country.

/ AP

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