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On October 20th, 2011, Libyans celebrated in the streets of Sirte after the death of Muammar el-Qaddafi, the unstable dictator that ruled Libya for more than 40 years.
In the center of that celebration was Mohammed al-Bibi, who just so happened to find Qaddafi’s golden revolver—a decadent gift from his son.
The picture of al-Bibi holding up the gun (below), wearing a New York Yankees baseball hat, became one of the most iconic images of the Libyan Revolution—a symbol of the end of a brutal dictatorship, and the liberation of the Libyan people.
But in the years since, the city where Qaddafi was captured has become a de-facto ISIS capital, with the rest of the country teetering between two unstable governments vying for power.
Gabriel Gatehouse, foreign correspondent for BBC News, was at the scene of Gaddafi’s death in 2011. He traveled back to Libya to track down the gold-plated gun once more, and see if it still represents a new future for the country.
Check out Gatehouse’s report about the golden gun below.
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