Defiant leader

To Gaddafi, the protests should hardly have been a challenge. The man, born in the desert region of Sirte in 1942 and a life- long soldier, has survived numerous wars with countries like Chad and Uganda in the 1980s, as well as repeated assassination plots including one in 1996 -- allegedly by Britain's Secret Intelligence Service after a decade-long cessation of ties which was triggered by the killing of a British policewoman by Libyan diplomats in 1984.

Moreover, he was mostly known for his defiance following the December 1988 bombings of a plane over Lockerbie of Scotland, in which Libyans were implicated.

The hijack, which cost 270 civilian lives among which 189 were Americans, was deemed as one of a series of responsive acts of violence in the 1980s between the United States and non-state or state-sponsored terrorist groups in the region.

Gaddafi refused to turn over the terrorist suspects until 1999. In 2003, Libya formally claimed responsibility for the bombing, but never offered apology for the attack. In 2009, when the only convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset al-Megrahi was released from Scottish prison on compassionate grounds, Gaddafi welcomed him at the airport, again outraging Washington.

But in times, Gaddafi also assessed the situation and make compromises, especially after years of sanctions by western countries as well as the United Nations in the 1990s. In 2001, to survive his political life, Gaddafi stood out quickly to denounce the September 11 attacks in the United States. He also announced in 2003 Libya's abandonment of its weapons of mass destruction programs.