Gaddafi transformed Libya into a new socialist state called a '' Jamahiriya '' ( " state of the masses " ) in 1977 . He officially adopted a symbolic role in governance but remained head of both the military and the Revolutionary Committees responsible for policing and suppressing dissent . During the 1970s and 1980s , Libya 's unsuccessful border conflicts with Egypt and Chad , support for foreign militants , and alleged responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing in Scotland left it increasingly isolated on the world stage . A particularly hostile relationship developed with the United States , United Kingdom , and Israel , resulting in the 1986 U.S. bombing of Libya and United Nations-imposed economic sanctions . From 1999 , Gaddafi shunned Arab socialism and encouraged economic privatization , rapprochement with Western nations , and Pan-Africanism ; he was Chairperson of the African Union from 2009 to 2010 . Amid the 2011 Arab Spring , protests against widespread corruption and unemployment broke out in eastern Libya . The situation descended into civil war , in which NATO intervened militarily on the side of the anti-Gaddafist National Transitional Council ( NTC ) . The government was overthrown , and Gaddafi retreated to Sirte , only to be captured and killed by NTC militants
Lockerbie bombing
Pan Am Flight 103
Muammar Gaddafi