Surman ( ˈsɝːmən; also spelled Sorman or Serman; ar, صرمان , ṣurmān ) is a city in the former

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 ...

region in northwestern

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 ...

, situated to the west 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 ...

on the

Mediterranean 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 e ...

coast. While it borders Sabrata in West, Yafren in south, Az zawia in the east and the southeast. With a population of about 90,000. The city has earned its place as one of the biggest hotspots of Libya in many trade areas.

Libyan civil wars

On 20 June 2011, during the first Libyan Civil War,

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 ...

strikes in Sorman against what appeared to be civilian homes in a compound belonging to one of

Muammar Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...

's associates, Khaled K. El-Hamedi, reportedly killed several civilians, including two children and their mother. NATO admitted carrying out an air strike on a military target in Sorman but denied civilian deaths. NATO issued a statement that said a precision air strike was launched against a "high-level" command and control "node" in the Sorman area. On 14 August, the National Liberation Army said it had captured the city in battle during the major coastal offensive. 10 rebel fighters were killed and at least 40 pro-Gaddafi fighters were captured during the battle for the town. In March 2016, during the second civil war, it was reported that two Italians who had been kidnapped in June 2015 were killed while they were used as

human shield A human shield is a non-combatant (or a group of non-combatants) who either volunteers or is forced to shield a legitimate military target in order to deter the enemy from attacking it. The use of human shields as a resistance measure was popula ...

s by

Islamic State 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 ...

gunmen in Sorman.

Libyan civil wars

References

See also