Khaddhafi (or Gaddafi or Qaddafi), Moamer al- (1942– )

Libyan revolutionary leader, in power since 1969. Charismatic and unpredictable, he set out to establish himself as leader of the Arab world. His sponsorship of anti-Western terrorist organizations and rebels in Chad the 1980s and 1990s, and attempts at territorial expansion, led to Libya's exclusion from the international community and to the imposition of international sanctions. However, from 1999 Khaddhafi sought to improve relations with the West and in 2003 Libya announced that it was giving up efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction. In 2006 diplomatic relations with the USA were restored after more than 25 years of mutual hostility.

Khaddhafi's complicity in international terrorism led to his country's diplomatic isolation in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1986 US president Ronald Reagan ordered the bombing of Khaddhafi's compound in Tripoli, after Libya was linked to a terrorist bombing in Berlin which killed a member of the US military. In 1992 UN air, arms, and oil equipment sanctions were imposed against Libya after Khaddhafi's refusal to allow extradition of two suspects in the 1988 Lockerbie and 1989 Union de Transports Aériens bombings. With growing economic problems at home and anxious to modernize Libya's oil industry, from the late 1990s Khaddhafi sought to mend fences with the West. In 1999 the two Lockerbie suspects were handed over and UN sanctions suspended. Their trial ended in January 2001, with one suspect convicted and the other acquitted, and in September 2003 UN sanctions were lifted after Libya admitted responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and agreed to pay $2 billion in compensation to the families of the Lockerbie victims. In 2000 Libya also mediated a hostage crisis in the Philippines, in which the Abu Sayyaf Muslim guerrillas kidnapped people of various nationalities who were holidaying in the area. Libya paid $24 million in ransom money for the remaining hostages in September 2000.

Khaddhafi was born in the desert region into a nomadic Bedouin family, which was active in the armed struggle to end colonial Italian rule. He was strongly influenced by the pan-Arabic nationalism of the Egyptian leader Gemal Abdel-Nasser and took part in anti-Israeli demonstrations during the Suez crisis of 1956. After army training in the UK, he formed a secret group in Benghazi, in eastern Libya, to plan the overthrow of the Libyan monarchy in a military coup. After overthrowing King Idris in 1969, he became virtual president of a republic, although he nominally gave up all except an ideological role in 1974. Khaddhafi developed his own theories in the Green Book, based on an egalitarian ‘natural socialism’. He tried to run the country on a socialist-Islamic basis which was distinct from capitalism or communism, with people's committees to encourage popular involvement. He also proposed mergers with a number of countries, including Syria, Egypt, and Chad, none of which were accepted. Once in power, Khaddhafi continued to live a nomadic existence, greeting visitors in a traditional Bedouin tent.