After security forces fired live rounds on demonstrators in Libya’s second city of Benghazi, in mid-February, anti-government protests escalated. Over the next few months, opposition to the rule of long-time dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi became a full-scale national revolt.

An opposition fighter gives a victory sign, while fighting on the front line at Ras Lanuf, on 11 March.

A funeral takes place in a cemetery in Benghazi.

Opposition fighters launch an attack on loyalist forces hiding out in Ajdabiya, 150 kilometers south of Benghazi, on 25 April.

Opposition fighters sing and celebrate, during the battle for the key oil town of Ras Lanuf, on 11 March.

A building on the outskirts of Ajdabiya shows scars of shelling by Gaddafi military. Ajdabiya was a strategic stop on the road to the ‘rebel capital’ Benghazi in the east.

Libyans in Misrata, which had been besieged for months by Gaddafi forces, celebrate the liberation of the country, on 24 October.

A young Libyan shows off the gun he has taken from the Gaddafi family compound, in Tripoli, on 23 September.

Rebel fighters conduct an assault on the Gaddafi family compound, Tripoli, on 23 September.

Rebels capture an alleged mercenary in Tripoli, on 25 September. Gaddafi was accused of hiring armed support from other African countries.

An opposition fighter takes aim at a loyalist sniper, in a district of Tripoli, on 24 September.

The body of Colonel Gaddafi lies in a cold-storage room at a market on the outskirts of Misrata, on 21 October. He had been captured the day before, though the exact circumstances of his death remain unclear.

Arts and Entertainment,1st prize

The Sochi Project: Sochi Singers