Colonel Muammar al GaddafiGad·da·fi, Colonel Mu·a·mmar al (also Qaddafi, Colonel Moamor al) /ɡəˈdæfi $ -ˈdɑː-, ˈməʊəmɑːr æl/ (1942–2011) the leader of Libya from 1969 to 2911. The government of the US accused him of supporting international terrorist groups during the 1980s, and in 1986 the US military bombed his home and some of his children were killed or injured. From 1999 he tried to improve Libya's relationship with the US and other Western countries, but in 2011 a civil war started in Libya and Gaddafi was killed.