Timeline

Rebellion in Libya

Since a 1969 military coup, Col. Moammar Kadafi led the North African nation of Libya with a firm but mercurial hand. Early this year, rebels began challenging Kadafi. What began as street protests soon escalated to a full-scale rebellion that took rebel forces into Tripoli. On Oct. 20, two months after rebels toppled his regime, Kadafi was captured and killed in his hometown, Surt.

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Feb. 17, 2011

Protests calling for the ouster of strongman Moammar Kadafi start in Benghazi, Libya's second largest city, and quickly spread to four other eastern cities.

Feb. 18, 2011

Demonstrators are met with violence in Benghazi as Moammar Kadafi dispatches the army to put down the rebellion.

Feb. 20, 2011

Despite heavy bloodshed, anti-Kadafi forces seize Benghazi and several other cities. Moammar Kadafi's son, Seif Islam, appears on television, vowing that security forces will fight "to the last bullet" to keep his father's regime in power. Human Rights Watch puts the death toll above 230.

Feb. 23, 2011

Anti-Kadafi rebels take control of most eastern cities as well as Misurata, a key western city less than 100 miles from the capital, Tripoli.

Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

Egyptian guest workers jam the road out of Libya as they flee political turmoil.

Feb. 24, 2011

Rebels reach Zawiya, 30 miles west of Tripoli. They seize control of Zawiya two days later.

Feb. 26, 2011

In response to violent repression of peaceful demonstrators in Tripoli, the United Nations imposes sanctions. U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton call on Moammar Kadafi to step down.

March 2, 2011

Moammar Kadafi's forces launch their first counterattack on Port Brega, a key oil-producing complex. The rebels are briefly repelled but retake the city, forcing the military to retreat to Ras Lanuf.

March 5, 2011

Rebels take Ras Lanuf, giving them control of petroleum production in the east, which produces 75% of Libya's crude.

March 7, 2011

The rebels face their first major setback as Moammar Kadafi orders airstrikes against Ras Lanuf. Farther west, government forces retake Bin Jawwad and cut off Misurata from rebel support.

March 9, 2011

Rebel forces begin to fall apart as Moammar Kadafi captures Zawiya and Ras Lanuf.

Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times

A member of the government security forces is on duty amid a fireworks display in Zawiya.

March 11, 2011

The EU calls for Moammar Kadafi to step down. France recognizes the rebel council in Benghazi as Libya's legitimate authority.

March 12, 2011

The Arab League joins Britain and France in calling for a no-fly zone over Libya.

March 13, 2011

Moammar Kadafi's forces retake Port Brega and control over Libya's oil supply. Rebels still hold Misurata but are under siege.

March 15, 2011

Pro-Kadafi forces capture Ajdabiya, bringing them within striking distance of the rebel stronghold in Benghazi.

March 16, 2011

Moammar Kadafi begins bombing Benghazi as forces loyal to him prepare to take the city and end the rebellion.

March 17, 2011

The U.N. Security Council authorizes a no-fly zone to protect civilians. The resolution authorizes "all necessary measures" short of deploying ground forces.

Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

Streets erupt in cheers as news of the U.N. Security Council vote reach Libyan rebels in the eastern seaside city of Tobruk.

March 18, 2011

Moammar Kadafi announces a cease-fire, but his army continues toward Benghazi.

March 19, 2011

"Operation Odyssey Dawn" begins with western airstrikes against Libyan air defenses. French fighter jets and U.S. and British warships fire more than 110 cruise missiles.

Spc. Nathanael Miller / U.S. Navy

The U.S. Navy's destroyer Barry fires Tomahawk cruise missiles toward targets in Libya.

March 21, 2011

Attacks escalate, with a cruise missile striking Moammar Kadafi's compound in Tripoli. Qatar begins flying missions over Libya.

March 24, 2011

NATO agrees to take over control of military operations in Libya, with the U.S. continuing to fly patrols in the interim.

March 26, 2011

Emboldened by allied airstrikes, rebels press west and retake Ajdabiya.

Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

A boy celebrates the rebel victory in Ajdabiya.

March 27, 2011

After heavy airstrikes, rebels retake Port Brega and Ras Lanuf in quick succession.

March 28, 2011

President Obama makes his first major address since airstrikes began, defending his actions as necessary to avert a humanitarian disaster. He vows U.S. involvement will be limited.

March 29, 2011

At an international conference in London, the U.S. prepares to hand over control of military action in Libya, but NATO still remains starkly divided over the best possible outcome for the country. Without air support, rebel forces are routed in the western city of Surt, retreating 100 miles to the east, giving up Bin Jawwad and Ras Lanuf in the process. Port Brega is eventually lost as well, reversing the gains of previous days.

March 31, 2011

Libya's foreign minister, Musa Kusa, defects to Britain. Four other defections are rumored to be imminent, including the head of parliament, the oil minister and the head of foreign intelligence.

April 1, 2011

The leader of the opposition's national council, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, offers a cease-fire if Moammar Kadafi's forces withdraw from several eastern cities and allow for peaceful protests to resume, but his overture is rebuffed.

April 4, 2011

Italy formally recognizes the opposition council as Libya's government. The U.S. begins to remove its warplanes from active combat.

Ben Curtis / Associated Press

A boy in the front seat of a vehicle fleeing Port Brega.

April 7, 2011

After recriminations for being slow to act and inadvertently killing rebels in a wayward airstrike, NATO increases attacks on Tripoli. In Port Brega, NATO planes mistakenly bomb tanks under rebel control.

April 8, 2011

A U.N. ship carries food and supplies to rebels isolated in Misurata.

April 11, 2011

With rebel and pro-government forces locked in a seemingly intractable battle for Ajdabiya, South African President Jacob Zuma and other delegates from the African Union meet with Moammar Kadafi in Tripoli to discuss a path to a peaceful resolution. Kadafi is reportedly amenable to details of the cease-fire, but rebels reject outright any plan that does not result in Kadafi relinquishing power.

April 19, 2011

Misurata, the only rebel-held city in western Libya, asks that NATO troops be sent to fight alongside the rebels holding off Libyan forces. "If they don't come, we will die," Nouri Abdul Ati, a member of the 17-member ruling body in Misurata, tells reporters.

April 24, 2011

After a bloody fight, Kadafi's forces flee Misurata but continue to pound it with artillery.

April 30, 2011

A NATO airstrike misses Moammar Kadafi but kills one of his sons and three grandchildren.

May 5, 2011

A rescue ship with 800 migrant workers from the besieged Libyan city Misurata arrives at the opposition stronghold of Benghazi.

May 15, 2011

Prosecutors ask judges of the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, his son and his brother-in-law.

Sergei Grits / Associated Press

Moammar Kadafi in 2008.

May 20, 2011

Facing criticism from Congress that authority for U.S. military action in Libya is about to expire under the War Powers Act, President Obama asks congressional leaders for a resolution of support for continuing the military involvement.

Saeed Khan / AFP/Getty Images

May 25, 2011

As President Obama and Western allies reaffirm their resolve to force Moammar Kadafi from power, Libyan leaders promote an alternative: The embattled Libyan leader remains as a figurehead who would ensure a transition to democracy.

Missam Saleh / EPA

A rebel fighter surveys the damage after clashes with forces loyal to Moammar Kadafi in Misurata.

May 31, 2011

Moammar Kadafi has no intention of leaving Libya, South African President Jacob Zuma's office reports after Zuma met with the Libyan leader in Tripoli.

June 7, 2011

Waves of NATO fighter planes hit the Libyan capital with one of the largest bombardments of the city since the Western-led alliance began airstrikes almost three months ago.

Mohamed Messara / EPA

A Libyan soldier stands in a Tripoli compound belonging to Moammar Kadafi that was hit by NATO airstrikes.

June 17, 2011

On the four-month anniversary of the uprising against the Libyan regime, the throngs converging on Tripoli's Green Square praise Moammar Kadafi.

Mohamed Messara / EPA

Supporters of Moammar Kadafi shout slogans during a pro-regime rally in Tripoli.

June 19, 2011

NATO officials admit that the alliance was probably responsible for an airstrike in a densely populated Tripoli neighborhood that Libyan authorities said killed nine people and injured 18.

Mohamed Messara / EPA

A Libyan policeman inspects rubble in front of a damaged house.

June 20, 2011

Libyan government officials say 15 people, including three children, were killed in the strike on Khweldi Hamedi's home west of Tripoli. NATO defends the attack as a "a precision strike on a legitimate military target."

Ivan Sekretarev / Associated Press

Firefighters search for survivors at a compound belonging to Khweldi Hamedi.

June 22, 2011

According to a spokesman for the opposition, indirect talks on the future of Libya have been taking place between representatives of Moammar Kadafi's government and rebels based in Benghazi.

June 24, 2011

The U.S. House of Representatives rejects a bill that would have cut off support for the NATO mission in Libya.

June 25, 2011

The uprising is also playing out in rugged mountain communities in the west, near the Tunisian border, where Libya's long-oppressed Berber minority sees its own chance to shake off Moammar Kadafi's four-decade rule.

Colin Summers / AFP/Getty Images

Smoke billows from a neighborhood of Nalut, a Berber town in western Libya.

June 27, 2011

The International Criminal Court at The Hague issues an arrest warrant for Moammar Kadafi, his son and his brother-in-law.

June 30, 2011

Rebels in Libya's western Nafusa mountain range are less than 50 miles from the nation's capital and edging closer to their first significant victory outside their mountain stronghold.

July 6, 2011

Rebel fighters in the Nafusa Mountains say they've driven out Moammar Kadafi's forces from Qawalish. Kadafi's regime announces treason charges against 21 rebel leaders.

July 15, 2011

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announces in Istanbul, Turkey, that the United States will join more than 30 other nations in extending diplomatic recognition to the Transitional National Council, which is based in Benghazi and controls eastern Libya.

July 19, 2011

Fighting intensifies around Port Brega in eastern Libya as rebel fighters struggle to dislodge government forces from the strategic coastal city and its petrochemical complex.

Sergey Ponomarev / Associated Press

A wounded rebel fighter is transported from a pickup to the hospital in rebel-held Ajdabiya.

July 29, 2011

The chief of staff for rebel forces fighting to overthrow Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi is attacked and killed. In a terse announcement that left many questions unanswered, the president of the council said Gen. Abdul Fatah Younis and two other commanders were killed as they returned from the eastern front near Port Brega to Benghazi, the de facto rebel capital.

Altaf Qadri / Associated Press

Gen. Abdul Fatah Younis, April 2011.

Aug. 4, 2011

Western allies move cautiously on Libyan assets. The U.S. and other nations are eager to help the Libyan rebel council gain access to Moammar Kadafi's funds frozen abroad. But they also want to make sure his regime can't get to the money.

Aug. 14, 2011

Libyan rebels battle for a key city near Tripoli. Capturing Zawiya would allow the fighters to cut off supplies to Moammar Kadafi's forces and bring them that much closer to the capital.

Aug. 20, 2011

Libyan rebels make gains that suggest Moammar Kadafi is losing his grip on power, though a fight for Tripoli, which the rebels say they have attacked, is likely to be protracted.

Giulio Petrocco / Associated Press

Aug. 21, 2011

Libyan rebel leaders say Moammar Kadafi's son and onetime heir apparent, Seif Islam Kadafi, is captured. Both sides in the conflict claim the upper hand as uprisings are reported across Tripoli.

EPA

Supporters of the Libyan rebels gather at the Libyan Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia.

Aug. 22, 2011

Libyan insurgents claim control of 80% of Tripoli but report heavy casualties in fierce fighting outside Moammar Kadafi's compound and other pockets of the city.

Gianluigi Guercia / AFP/Getty Images

Thousands celebrate in Benghazi as rebel fighters push into Tripoli.

Aug. 23, 2011

Libyan rebels destroy symbols of Moammar Kadafi's power.

Associated Press Photo / APTN

A rebel fighter climbs on a statue inside Moammar Kadafi's compound in Tripoli.

Sept. 7, 2011

Moammar Kadafi's whereabouts remain a mystery.

Sept. 18, 2011

Libya's provisional rulers put off "indefinitely" their much-anticipated naming of a new government tasked with guiding the nation forward after the ouster of longtime leader Moammar Kadafi.

Mohamed Messara / EPA

Rebels in Bani Walid, a town southeast of Tripoli.

Sept. 28, 2011

Revolutionary forces loyal to Libya's provisional government press their assault on Moammar Kadafi's hometown.

Oct. 2, 2011

As fighters loyal to Libya's revolutionary government gain on the holdout city of Surt, residents are making it clear that the battle for hearts and minds is far from won.

Oct. 13, 2011

Fighters loyal to Moammar Kadafi engage in a last-ditch battle from a single pocket of resistance in the former Libyan leader's besieged hometown.

Mohamed Messara / EPA

Libyan revolutionaries fire from a street flooded by broken pipes in Surt.

Oct. 20, 2011

Moammar Kadafi is dead.

Oct. 23, 2011

Libya's new leaders declare their nation "liberated," paving the way for elections and a constitution that the revolutionary government says will put the country on a path to its first representative democracy.