Omar Mukhtar

Omar Mukhtar was a famous Libyan leader. He was born in the year 1862. He went to the village school when he was young but didn't stay there for many years as he had to work at a very young age. Later he started working as a Qur'an teacher. He was always described as a man who had a calm and quiet nature. He also had all the qualities of a strong leader.

In October 1911, Italian battleships reached the shore of the Libyan capital Tripoli and ordered the Turkish troops to surrender the city to the Italian forces. The Turks saw the mighty Italian fleet and decided to leave the city and flee. Only the Libyan civilians stayed in Tripoli but the Italian ships attacked anyway. They bombed the city for three days and after that declared Tripoli to be "committed and strongly bound to Italy".

This event marked the Italian occupation of Libya which lasted nearly 80 years. Some Libyan leaders realized that they would never be able to defend their country against the mighty Italian forces that were getting stronger day by day. Omar Mukhtar was 50 years old at that time and he spent the next 20 years of his life fighting the Italians.

Omar started forming an army to defend Libya. Initially he got nearly 20 people to fight the Italians depending on his skills and knowledge of his desert country. This gave him a big advantage over the Italians who had never been used to fighting in the desert. Omar used guerrilla tactics and attacked Italian forces everywhere in Libya. His forces cut supply lines, ambushed Italian troops and left many of them dead. Many of his men died too because the Italians had better military equipment. The Italians were astonished by his tactics and were greatly frustrated that they were outsmarted by a "Bedouin".

The Italians had many tanks and modern airplanes but they were always killed by men who were riding horses or fighting on foot. Omar's army were called ”Mujahadeen" meaning " the ones who declared a holy war". Omar Mukhtar was widely respected among all Libyans and his army grew to nearly 6000 fighters while the Italians had tens of thousands of troops. Omar's men believed that it was their religious duty to defend their country against the Italian invaders. At that time many Arab countries were occupied by Britain, France and Turkey. After every attack on the Italians, the Mujahadeen went into hiding in the desert and the Italians could not fight an army they couldn't see.

Omar's army had very old rifles and some horses. Sometimes they got help from Egypt which was occupied by Britain. The British did not like the idea of having Italy taking control of Libya. The supplies from Egypt were not enough to help Omar win the war against the Italians.

Omar was received as a hero in every village he went to and any place he liberated from the Italians. When Omar was nearly 70 years old, the Italians decided to imprison Libyan men, women and children in concentration camps in the desert. They wanted to prevent young people from joining Omar's army and fighting the Italians. Thousands of Libyans were tortured and nearly 100,000 of them died in the desert.

One day Omar was wounded in the fight against the Italians and fell off his horse. A young man who was under his command gave him his horse to save his life. That young man was arrested by the Italians and tortured in order to tell them where Omar was. He was hanged a few days later because he refused to give them any information that could help in the arrest of Omar Mukhtar. Later on Omar was arrested after the Italians used a poisonous gas to kill Libyan fighters. Many were killed by that gas and the Italians finally arrested Omar. They put him on trial and ordered that he be hanged in front of his people in the concentration camp. The Italians could at last arrest the 70-year-old man who gave them a hard time and outsmarted them for 20 years.

When asked if he had any last words before he was hanged he said, "We are from God and to God we shall return". The Italian generals took photos with him when he was arrested. Although Omar was the enemy, many of them had great admiration for, the Lion of the Desert.

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