Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya  Chairman of the
General National Congress: Mohamed Magarief (2012)  Prime
Minister: Ali Zidan (2012)  Total area: 679,358 sq mi (1,759,540
sq km)    Monetary unit: Libyan dinar   Current government
officials    Religion: Islam (Sunni) 97%, other 3%  National
Holiday: Revolution Day, September 1  Literacy rate: 89.2% (2010
est.)      Major sources and definitions  Flag of Libya
Military dictatorship.       Muammar al-Qaddafi Comes to Power
and Militarizes Libya   On Aug. 19, 1981, two U.S. Navy F-14s
shot down two Soviet-made SU-22s of the Libyan air force that
had attacked them in air space above the Gulf of Sidra. On March
24, 1986, U.S. and Libyan forces skirmished in the Gulf of
Sidra, and two Libyan patrol boats were sunk. Qaddafi's troops
also supported rebels in Chad but suffered major military
reverses in 1987. A two-year-old U.S. covert policy to
destabilize the Libyan government ended in failure in Dec. 1990.
On Dec. 21, 1988, a Boeing 747 explode