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Second Italo-Senussi War | |||||||
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Part of the interwar period | |||||||
Senussi rebel leader Omar al-Mukhtar (the man in traditional clothing with a chain on his left arm) after his arrest by Italian armed forces in 1931. Mukhtar was executed in a public hanging shortly afterward. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Italy |
Senussi Order Tripolitanian rebels Fezzan rebels | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Benito Mussolini |
Omar al-Mukhtar Yusuf Burahil † Salem en Nebi Mohammed ben Hassel Seif en Nasser | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
2,582 deaths[2] | 40,000–70,000 deaths[3] |
The Second Italo-Senussi War, also referred to as the Pacification of Libya, was a conflict that occurred during the Italian colonization of Libya between Italian military forces (composed mainly by colonial troops from Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia)[4] and indigenous rebels associated with the Senussi Order. The war lasted from 1923 until 1932,[5][6][7] when the principal Senussi leader, Omar al-Mukhtar, was captured and executed.[8] The Libyan genocide took place during and after the conflict.
Events leading to World War II |
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Fighting took place in all three of Libya's provinces (Tripolitania, Fezzan, and Cyrenaica), but was most intense and prolonged in the mountainous Jebel Akhdar region of Cyrenaica.[9] The war led to the mass deaths of the indigenous people of Cyrenaica, totalling one quarter of the region's population of 225,000.[10] Italian war crimes included the use of chemical weapons, execution of surrendering combatants, and the mass killing of civilians,[1] while the Senussis were accused of torture and mutilation of captured Italians and refusal to take prisoners since the late 1910s.[11][12][13] Italian authorities forcibly expelled 100,000 Bedouin Cyrenaicans, half the population of Cyrenaica, from their settlements, many of which were then given to Italian settlers.[14][15]
between 40,000 and 70,000 deaths due to forced deportations, starvation and disease inside the concentration camps, and hanging and executions