![Sirte](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Sirte.jpg)
Sirte (; ar, سِرْت, ), also spelled Sirt, Surt, Sert or Syrte, is a city in
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...
. It is located south of the
Gulf of Sirte
The Gulf of Sidra ( ar, خليج السدرة, Khalij as-Sidra, also known as the Gulf of Sirte ( ar, خليج سرت, Khalij Surt, is a body of water in the Mediterranean Sea on the northern coast of Libya, named after the oil port of Sidra or ...
, between
Tripoli
Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to:
Cities and other geographic units Greece
*Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...
and
Benghazi. It is famously known for its battles,
ethnic groups
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
, and
loyalty to
Muammar Gaddafi. Also due to developments in the
First Libyan Civil War
The First Libyan Civil War was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya that was fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that were seeking to oust his government. It erupted with the Libya ...
, it was briefly the capital of
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...
as
Tripoli
Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to:
Cities and other geographic units Greece
*Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...
's successor after the
Fall of Tripoli from 1 September to 20 October 2011. The settlement was established in the early 20th century by the
Italians
, flag =
, flag_caption = The national flag of Italy
, population =
, regions = Italy 55,551,000
, region1 = Brazil
, pop1 = 25–33 million
, ref1 =
, region2 ...
, at the site of a 19th-century fortress built by the
Ottomans. It grew into a city after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
As the birthplace of
Muammar Gaddafi, Sirte was favoured by the
Gaddafi government
Muammar Gaddafi became the ''de facto'' leader of Libya on 1 September 1969 after leading a group of young Libyan Army officers against King Idris I in a bloodless coup d'état. After the king had fled the country, the Revolutionary Comma ...
. The city was the final major stronghold of Gaddafi loyalists in the civil war and Gaddafi was
killed there by rebel forces on 20 October 2011. During the
battle
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
, Sirte was left almost completely in ruins, with many buildings destroyed or damaged. Six months after the civil war, almost 60,000 inhabitants, more than 70 percent of the pre-war population, had returned.
[Dobbs, L. (16 April 2012). ]
Libya: Displaced Return to Rebuild Gaddafi's Hometown - Face Needs?
'' allAfrica. Accessed 22 April 2012
History
Early history
Sirte is built near the site of the ancient
Phoenicia
Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...
n city of Macomedes-Euphranta, which was an important link on the road along the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...
littoral. It is the last confirmed place where the
Punic language
The Punic language, also called Phoenicio-Punic or Carthaginian, is an extinct variety of the Phoenician language, a Canaanite language of the Northwest Semitic branch of the Semitic languages. An offshoot of the Phoenician language of coastal W ...
was spoken, in the 5th century CE. The region had no recognized administrative centre and was infested for centuries by bandits. In Classical times, the coast was "proverbially dangerous to shipping", called "inhospita Syrtis" in
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...
's ''
Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; la, Aenē̆is or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan_War#Sack_of_Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to ...
''.
John Milton
John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...
's ''
Paradise Lost
''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse (poetry), verse. A second edition fo ...
'' Book 2 lines 939-940 speaks of "a boggy Syrtis, neither sea/Nor good dry land".
The medieval city of Surt was located some 55 km east of the present-day city, at a site now known as al-Mudayna or Madina Sultan.
After the Umayyad conquest of North Africa, Berbers from the Butr confederation settled in Surt, and around the middle of the 8th century they converted to
Ibadi Islam
The Ibadi movement or Ibadism ( ar, الإباضية, al-Ibāḍiyyah) is a school of Islam. The followers of Ibadism are known as the Ibadis.
Ibadism emerged around 60 years after the Islamic prophet Muhammad's death in 632 AD as a moderate sc ...
along with the surrounding region.
A mosque was probably built at Surt during this period, although no authors mention a mosque in Surt until the 11th century.
The most detailed early description of the city was written by
Ibn Hawqal
Muḥammad Abū’l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥawqal (), also known as Abū al-Qāsim b. ʻAlī Ibn Ḥawqal al-Naṣībī, born in Nisibis, Upper Mesopotamia; was a 10th-century Arab Muslim writer, geographer, and chronicler who travelled during the ye ...
, who passed through Surt in 947 on his way to
al-Mahdiyyah (which was then the capital of the
Fatimid Caliphate
The Fatimid Caliphate was an Isma'ilism, Ismaili Shia Islam, Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the ea ...
).
Ibn Hawqal described Surt as being "a bow-shot away from the sea, built on hard, sandy ground with strong walls of mud and brick".
He described it as inhabited by Berbers, who stored rainwater in
cistern
A cistern (Middle English ', from Latin ', from ', "box", from Greek ', "basket") is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by t ...
s and were engaged in various forms of agriculture and livestock herding.
They grew
date
Date or dates may refer to:
*Date (fruit), the fruit of the date palm (''Phoenix dactylifera'')
Social activity
*Dating, a form of courtship involving social activity, with the aim of assessing a potential partner
** Group dating
*Play date, a ...
s, grapes, and other fruits, and kept goats and camels.
Another local industry was
alum mining, which was exported.
According to Ibn Hawqal, Surt at this point was wealthier than nearby
Ajdabiya.
Surt was probably fortified by the Fatimid caliph
al-Mu'izz
Abu Tamim Ma'ad al-Muizz li-Din Allah ( ar, ابو تميم معد المعزّ لدين الله, Abū Tamīm Maʿad al-Muʿizz li-Dīn Allāh, Glorifier of the Religion of God; 26 September 932 – 19 December 975) was the fourth Fatimid calip ...
around 965, in preparation for the
Fatimid conquest of Egypt
The Fatimid conquest of Egypt took place in 969, as the troops of the Fatimid Caliphate under the general Jawhar captured Egypt, then ruled by the autonomous Ikhshidid dynasty in the name of the Abbasid Caliphate.
The Fatimids launched repeated ...
under his general
Jawhar al-Siqilli.
The Fatimids founded the new city of
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
to serve as their new capital in Egypt.
After they moved there, the Surt region became a battleground between the Fatimids and the
Zirid dynasty
The Zirid dynasty ( ar, الزيريون, translit=az-zīriyyūn), Banu Ziri ( ar, بنو زيري, translit=banū zīrī), or the Zirid state ( ar, الدولة الزيرية, translit=ad-dawla az-zīriyya) was a Sanhaja Berber dynasty from m ...
of
Kairouan
Kairouan (, ), also spelled El Qayrawān or Kairwan ( ar, ٱلْقَيْرَوَان, al-Qayrawān , aeb, script=Latn, Qeirwān ), is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city was founded by t ...
.
The
Banu Khazrun of
Tripoli
Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to:
Cities and other geographic units Greece
*Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...
also controlled Surt for a while as Fatimid allies.
Around 1037, the
Banu Hilal
The Banu Hilal ( ar, بنو هلال, translit=Banū Hilāl) was a confederation of Arabian tribes from the Hejaz and Najd regions of the Arabian Peninsula that emigrated to North Africa in the 11th century. Masters of the vast plateaux of t ...
began to settle in the Surt region.
Somewhat later,
al-Bakri
Abū ʿUbayd ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb ibn ʿAmr al-Bakrī ( ar, أبو عبيد عبد الله بن عبد العزيز بن محمد بن أيوب بن عمرو البكري), or simply al-Bakrī (c. 1040–1 ...
described Surt as "a large city by the sea" with a mosque, a
hammam
A hammam ( ar, حمّام, translit=ḥammām, tr, hamam) or Turkish bath is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It is a prominent feature in the Islamic culture, culture of the Muslim world and ...
, and
bazaars (these three features are mentioned for the first time here).
He listed three gates in the city walls: Qiblī (facing southeast), Jawfī (facing inland), and "a small one facing the sea".
There were no suburbs outside the walls.
He also noted, "its animals are goats and their meat is juicy and tender, the like of which is not found in Egypt."
Al-Bakri also alluded to a merchant community including Arabs, Berbers, Persians, and
Copts
Copts ( cop, ⲛⲓⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ; ar, الْقِبْط ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group indigenous to North Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt and Sudan since antiquity. Most ethnic Copts are C ...
.
In the late Fatimid period, Surt began to decline - it seems to have lost its position at the intersection of east-west and north-south trade routes.
The 12th-century author
al-Idrisi apparently visited the Surt region and wrote about the city's decline.
The 13th-century author
Ali ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi wrote that its forts were still standing.
At some point thereafter, the old city of Surt was finally abandoned.
Since the 19th century and particularly since the 1960s, the old city of Surt has been explored by archaeologists, mostly based on al-Bakri's reports.
Excavations have revealed the old city walls, enclosing an area of 184,003 square meters, as well as the gates, the forts, the mosque, and the city streets.
No evidence of the harbor has been found, though.
Modern history
In 1842 the
Ottomans built a fortress at ''Marsat al Zaafran'' ("
saffron
Saffron () is a spice derived from the flower of ''Crocus sativus'', commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigma and styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly as a seasoning and colouring agent in ...
harbour") which became known as ''Qasr al Zaafran'' ("saffron
castle"), and later as Qasr Sert. The fortress was built under sultan
Abdülmecid I
Abdulmejid I ( ota, عبد المجيد اول, ʿAbdü'l-Mecîd-i evvel, tr, I. Abdülmecid; 25 April 182325 June 1861) was the 31st Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and succeeded his father Mahmud II on 2 July 1839. His reign was notable for the r ...
as part of the restoration of Ottoman control over
Tripolitania
Tripolitania ( ar, طرابلس '; ber, Ṭrables, script=Latn; from Vulgar Latin: , from la, Regio Tripolitana, from grc-gre, Τριπολιτάνια), historically known as the Tripoli region, is a historic region and former province o ...
after the fall of the
Karamanli dynasty
The Karamanli, Caramanli, Qaramanli, or al-Qaramanli dynasty was an early modern dynasty, independent or quasi-independent, which ruled from 1711 to 1835 in Ottoman Tripolitania. The territory comprised Tripoli and its surroundings in present- ...
. It was around this fortification, which was taken over and repaired by the
Italians
, flag =
, flag_caption = The national flag of Italy
, population =
, regions = Italy 55,551,000
, region1 = Brazil
, pop1 = 25–33 million
, ref1 =
, region2 ...
in 1912, that the settlement of Sirte grew up.
Sirte served as an administrative centre under Italian rule. During the
North African Campaign of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
there were no noteworthy events in this location, which was characterised at the time as "a shabby little Arab village of mud huts, clustered on the banks of a foul-smelling stream."
The village grew into a prominent town after the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
for two reasons – the discovery and exploitation of oil nearby and the birth of
Muammar Gaddafi in 1942 in a tent at
Qasr Abu Hadi
Qasr Abu Hadi ( ar, قصر ابو هادي ') is a village with an estimated 4,890 inhabitants in the Sirte District of Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is ...
, some south of Sirte. He was sent to the primary school at Sirte at the age of ten.
Gaddafi era
After
seizing power in 1969, Gaddafi transformed Sirte into a showcase of his self-proclaimed revolution, carrying out an extensive program of public works to expand the former village into a small city. After 1988, most government departments and the Libyan parliament were relocated from Tripoli to Sirte, although Tripoli remained formally the capital of the country.
Al-Tahadi University was established in 1991.
In 1999, Gaddafi proposed the idea of creating a "
United States of Africa
The United States of Africa is a hypothetical concept of a federation of some or all of the 54 sovereign states and two disputed states on the continent of Africa. The concept takes its origin from Marcus Garvey's 1924 poem " Hail, United Stat ...
" with Sirte as its administrative centre. Ambitious plans to build a new international airport and seaport were announced in 2007.
In 1999, the
Sirte Declaration
The Sirte Declaration was the resolution adopted by the Organisation of African Unity on 9 September 1999, at the fourth Extraordinary Session of the OAU Assembly of African Heads of State and Government held at Sirte, Libya. The Declaration an ...
was signed in the city by the
Organisation of African Unity
The Organisation of African Unity (OAU; french: Organisation de l'unité africaine, OUA) was an intergovernmental organization established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 32 signatory governments. One of the main heads for OAU's ...
in a conference that was hosted by Gaddafi. In 2007 he also hosted talks in Sirte to broker a peace agreement between the government of
Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
and warring factions in
Darfur.
In 2008,
China Railway Construction Corporation
China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (abbreviated CRCC) is a listed construction enterprise based in Beijing, China, that was the second largest construction and engineering company in the world by revenue in 2014.
The limited compan ...
won a $2.6 billion bid in Libya to build a west-to-east coastal railway from
Khoms to Sirte and a south-to-west railway long for iron ore transport from the southern city
Sabha to
Misrata
Misrata ( ; also spelled Misurata or Misratah; ar, مصراتة, Miṣrāta ) is a city in the Misrata District in northwestern Libya, situated to the east of Tripoli and west of Benghazi on the Mediterranean coast near Cape Misrata. With ...
.
First Libyan Civil War
On 5 March 2011,
anti-Gaddafi forces said they were preparing to capture the city. However, on 6 March, the rebel advance was stopped during the
Battle of Bin Jawad
The Battle of Bin Jawad was a battle in the Libyan Civil War between forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and anti-Gaddafi forces for control of the town of Bin Jawad.
Battle
On 5 March 2011, following the Battle of Ra's Lanuf, rebel ...
before reaching Sirte. Government forces launched a counter-offensive that
recaptured Ra's Lanuf and continued to advance as far as the outskirts of the de facto rebel capital of
Benghazi. Under
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973
Resolution 1973 was adopted by the United Nations Security Council on 17 March 2011 in response to the First Libyan Civil War. The resolution formed the legal basis for military intervention in the Libyan Civil War, demanding "an immediate ceas ...
, several Western and Arab countries then intervened with air and missile strikes, which turned the tide again in favour of the rebels. On 28 March, Al Jazeera reported that Sirte had been claimed to be taken by rebel forces overnight with little resistance, but other news organisations later reported that rebels and Gaddafi forces were fighting on the road between
Bin Jawad
Bin Jawad ( ar, بن جواد '), also known as ''Bin Jawwād'', ''Bin Quwad'' is a town with estimated 8,488 inhabitants in the Sirte District in Libya. It is approximately halfway between Benghazi and Misrata. The nearest settlements are Nofa ...
and Sirte. By 30 March, Gaddafi loyalists had forced the rebels out of Bin Jawad and Ra's Lanuf and once again removed the immediate threat of an attack on Sirte.
In August, the city faced a more severe threat from the rebels as the loyalist position deteriorated rapidly, with rebels making gains on multiple fronts. As
Tripoli came under attack, other rebel forces based in
Benghazi broke the military stalemate in the eastern desert, taking
Brega and
Ra's Lanuf
Ras Lanuf ( ( ar, راس لانوف , also: ''Ra’s al-Unūf'' )) is a Mediterranean town in northern Libya, on the Gulf of Sidra. The town is also home to the Ra's Lanuf Refinery, completed in 1984, with a crude oil refining capacity of . The oil ...
. At the same time, rebels in
Misrata
Misrata ( ; also spelled Misurata or Misratah; ar, مصراتة, Miṣrāta ) is a city in the Misrata District in northwestern Libya, situated to the east of Tripoli and west of Benghazi on the Mediterranean coast near Cape Misrata. With ...
pushed eastward along the coast towards Sirte, which then faced a pincer movement from the rebels on two fronts. On 24 August, rebel units were reported as being from the city. On 27 August, Bin Jawad – about 150 km east – was once again recaptured by the rebels. It was also reported that the
National Transitional Council
The National Transitional Council of Libya ( ar, المجلس الوطني الإنتقالي '), sometimes known as the Transitional National Council, was the ''de facto'' government of Libya for a period during and after the Libyan Civil War ...
were in negotiations with tribal figures from the city for it to surrender to rebel forces.
In a radio address on 1 September 2011, Gaddafi declared Sirte the new capital of the
Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, replacing the former capital
Tripoli
Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to:
Cities and other geographic units Greece
*Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...
, which had been captured by rebels.
Anti-Gaddafi forces
surrounded the city during September 2011 and began a long, difficult
battle
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
there, hoping to bring the war to an end. On 20 October, after suffering massive casualties during a siege that lasted over a month, NTC fighters mounted a major offensive and took control of the last remaining district of Sirte, "Number Two", that was in the hands of regime loyalists.
Muammar Gaddafi attempted to flee the city, but he was injured and captured by fighters. He
was killed in custody less than an hour later.
Sirte was left heavily damaged by a month of intense fighting, which was preceded by
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
airstrikes throughout the war, and was considered to have been subjected to the most damage of any Libyan city during the civil war.
Many homes were ransacked and looted by fighters, angering residents including those loyal to Gaddafi and those sympathetic to the revolution. Many streets and buildings also experienced flooding as water mains were destroyed, though it was unclear by which side. Landmarks like the Ouagadougou Conference Center, which became an impromptu fortress for the city's defenders during the battle, were ruined by artillery fire and blasts. A number of Libyan residents and fighters described the city as unrecognisable after weeks of siege.
Postwar
In April 2012, almost six months after the civil war, more than 70 percent of the inhabitants had returned to Sirte. Rebuilding of the city started, although unexploded ordnance still posed a great risk to civilians.
In February 2012, some local residents said they felt abandoned by the
National Transitional Council
The National Transitional Council of Libya ( ar, المجلس الوطني الإنتقالي '), sometimes known as the Transitional National Council, was the ''de facto'' government of Libya for a period during and after the Libyan Civil War ...
(NTC), but the new government had promised to rebuild the city and Deputy Prime Minister
Mustafa Abushagur insisted this would happen. Some local rebuilding was done in 2012 and 2013,
but reconstruction of municipal services did not begin until a 9 million Libyan dinars reconstruction project started in 2014.
=ISIL occupation
=
During the
widespread chaos and civil war that followed the revolution and led to the erosion of territorial control under the
General National Congress
The General National Congress or General National Council (GNC; ar, المؤتمر الوطني العام, Berber: Agraw Amuran Amatay) was the legislative authority of Libya for two years following the end of the First Libyan Civil War. It w ...
(GNC) (which had succeeded the NTC) and the new GNC (NGNC),
local loyalists to the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
(ISIL), which had previously seized the port city of
Derna, launched an attack in March 2015 to capture Sirte, which was then occupied by the
Libya Shield Force
The Libya Shield Force is an armed organisation formed in 2012 out of anti-Gaddafi armed groups spread throughout Libya. The Libyan parliament designated much of the Libya Shield Force as terrorist and elements of the Libya Shield Force were ide ...
, an NGNC-linked militia. Sirte fell to ISIL loyalists in May 2015.
Following the formation of a new Tripoli-based government, the
Government of National Accord
The Government of National Accord ( ar, حكومة الوفاق الوطني) was an interim government for Libya that was formed under the terms of the Libyan Political Agreement, a United Nations–led initiative, signed on 17 December 2015. ...
(GNA), an offensive backed by the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
was launched in May 2016 by GNA-aligned forces, known as the
Bunyan Marsous, to recapture Sirte.
After two months of advances, pro-government forces took control of ISIL's Sirte headquarters on 10 August 2016, although pockets of ISIL resistance continued to prolong fighting through the end of the year.
Sirte was substantially under the control of the GNA by 6 December 2016.
A contributing factor to the recapture of the city were the over 400 airstrikes organized by the
United States Africa Command
The United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM, U.S. AFRICOM, and AFRICOM), is one of the eleven unified combatant commands of the United States Department of Defense, headquartered at Kelley Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany. It is responsible for U ...
against ISIL positions during the months-long battle.
Approximately 700 Libya pro-government fighters and 2,000 ISIL loyalists died in Sirte between May and November 2016.
=Reconstruction
=
Mayoral elections were scheduled for 12 December 2016 with the previously (2015) municipal councilmen taking office again.
Second Libyan Civil War
The
Libyan National Army
The Libyan National Army (LNA; ar, الجيش الوطني الليبي, ''al-jaysh al-waṭaniyy al-Lībii'') is a component of Libya's military forces which were nominally a unified national force under the command of Field Marshal Khalifa ...
fought a battle with the GNA and entered the city on 6 January 2020.
GNA forces
launched an attack to capture Sirte from the LNA on 6 June 2020.
LNA forces proposed a ceasefire backed by
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
. However, the GNA rejected the ceasefire as they entered Sirte. Despite this, the attack was thwarted the following day, which led to the LNA retaliating by conducting airstrikes from
Mig-29
The Mikoyan MiG-29 (russian: Микоян МиГ-29; NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) is a twin-engine fighter aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. Developed by the Mikoyan design bureau as an air superiority fighter during the 1970s, the Mi ...
s on a huge Turkish convoy of military and GNA forces heading for Sirte, destroying it and resulting in heavy GNA and possibly Turkish casualties.
See also
*
List of cities in Libya
This is a list of the 100 largest populated places in Libya. Some places in the list could be considered suburbs or neighborhoods of some large cities in the list, so this list is not definitive.
''Source:Amraja M. el Khajkhaj, "Noumou ...
*
Transport in Libya
Railways
Libya has had no railway in operation since 1965, all previous narrow gauge lines having been dismantled. Plans for a new network have been under development for some time (earthworks were begun between Sirte and Ras Ajdir, Tunisia bord ...
*
Railway stations in Libya
There were few railway stations built in Libya during the 20th century. The ones that were built were done so by the Italians from the 1920s as part of their colonial administration. Today there are no functioning railway stations active in the cou ...
*
Qadhadhfa
The Qadhadhfa (also ''al-Qaddafa'', ''Gaddadfa'', ''Qaddadfa'', ''Gaddafa''; ar, القذاذفـة) is one of the Arab Ashraf tribes in Libya, living in the Sirte District in present-day northwestern Libya. They are traditionally counted among ...
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{{Authority control
Former national capitals
Populated places in Sirte District
Populated coastal places in Libya
Gulf of Sidra
Muammar Gaddafi
Tripolitania
Baladiyat of Libya
20th-century establishments in Libya
Populated places established in the 20th century