Muammar Qaddafi took power in Libya in 1969 and ruled the North African country until he was deposed in 2011.
Muammar Qaddafi: Snapshots Of A Strongman
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In this 1969 file photo, Qaddafi salutes as he appears with Egypt's Prime Minister Gamal Abdel Nasser, in Suez, Egypt.
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Qaddafi meets with Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito during a visit to Belgrade on November 20, 1973.
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Qaddafi is pictured during the summit of the Organization of African Unity in Kampala, Uganda, in August 1975.
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Qaddafi (center) and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev (to Qaddafi's right) smile as members of their delegations sign agreements during a visit to Moscow in December 1976.
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Cuban leader Fidel Castro meets with Qaddafi in Tripoli on March 8, 1977.
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Qaddafi and his wife, Suffiya (in floral print dress), wave to the crowd upon their arrival for an official visit to Senegal in December 1985.
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Qaddafi chats with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak upon his arrival in Cairo on June 22, 1996, to attend an Arab Summit. Mubarak was himself ousted as president by antigovernment protests in February and is now on trial in Cairo.
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has dealt with his own antigovernment protests with a violent crackdown, clasps hands with Qaddafi at the opening session of the Arab Summit in Damascus on March 29, 2008.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin holds talks with Qaddafi at Qaddafi's residence within the Bab al-Aziziya barracks in Tripoli in April 2008.
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Qaddafi shakes hands with Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka during the Libyan leader's first visit to Minsk on November 2, 2008.
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U.S. President Barack Obama shakes hands with Qaddafi during the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, on July 9, 2009.
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Qaddafi makes the victory sign as he arrives for a session at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, on July 10, 2009.
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Qaddafi waves before delivering a long, rambling speech to the United Nations General Assembly on September 23, 2009 at UN headquarters in New York. It was his first speech to the General Assembly in his four-decade rule.
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Qaddafi looks on during a news conference in Rome on June 10, 2009.
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Qaddafi delivers a speech during the opening session of a World Summit on Food Security organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization on November 16, 2009, at its headquarters in Rome.
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A Libyan man poses for a picture in front of a portrait of Qaddafi during a meeting of senior Libyan clerics in Tripoli on July 27, 2011.
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Qaddafi gestures to his supporters in Tripoli on April 10, 2011. Libyan state television aired an audio message from Qaddafi urging loyalists to take arms and fight "traitors and NATO."