Spanish conquest of Tripoli
22 July 1510 – 25 July 1510
The Conquest of Tripoli was a maritime campaign led by Pedro Navarro which captured the city of Tripoli in North Africa in the name of the Crown of Aragon in 1510.
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The Story of
Libya
1510 – 2025
Sovereign state in North Africa
Siege of Tripoli
9 August 1551 – 15 August 1551
The siege of Tripoli was a successful Ottoman siege of the North African city of Tripoli, then held by the Knights Hospitaller, in August 1551. The attack, which was led by Sinan Pasha and Dragut, appears to have been launched in retaliation for the capture of Mahdia by the Spanish and Hospitallers the previous year.
Second Battle of Tripoli Harbor
3 August 1804 – 10 September 1804
The Second Battle of Tripoli Harbor was a naval action that occurred during the American naval blockade, which took place in Tripoli Harbor between August and September 1804. The battle was part of the First Barbary War between forces of the United States and the forces of the Eyalet of Tripolitania.
Battle of Derna
27 April 1805 – 12 June 1805
The Battle of Derna at Derna, Cyrenaica, was a military engagement in April–May 1805 of a mercenary army recruited and led by United States Marines under the command of U.S. Army Lieutenant William Eaton, diplomatic Consul to Tripoli, and U.S. Marine Corps First Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon. The battle involved a 521-mile (839-km) march through the Libyan Desert from Alexandria, Egypt, to the eastern port city of Derna, which was defended by a much larger force.
Battle of Tripoli
10 October 1911
The Battle of Tripoli was fought in October 1911, during the initial stages of the Italo-Turkish War, and saw the capture of Tripoli, capital city of Tripolitania (and present-day Libya), by Italian landing forces. It marked the beginning of the land campaign in Libya of the Italo-Turkish War as well as the beginning of the Italian colonization of Libya.
Battle of Ain Zara
4 December 1911
The Battle of Ain Zara was fought in December 1911 during the Italo-Turkish War between the Kingdom of Italy and Ottoman Empire forces for the control of the oasis of Ain Zara, near Tripoli in modern Libya, where the Ottomans had established a fortified base.
Battle of Tobruk
22 December 1911
The Battle of Tobruk (1911) or Nadura Hill Battle occurred on 22 December 1911 during the Italo-Turkish War for the control of the Nadura Hill near Tobruk (a city the Italians had occupied in October). The battle was a small engagement primarily known for the involvement and leadership of future Turkish president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
Libyan genocide
1929–1934
The Libyan genocide, also known in Libya as Shar (Arabic: شر, lit. 'Evil'), was the genocide of Libyan Arabs and the systematic destruction of Libyan culture during and after the Second Italo-Senussi War between 1929 and 1934. During this period, between 20,000 and 100,000 Libyans were killed by Italian colonial authorities under Benito Mussolini.
Siege of Giarabub
25 December 1940 – 21 March 1941
The siege of Giarabub (now Jaghbub) in Libya, was an engagement between Commonwealth and Italian forces, during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. In the aftermath of Operazione E, the invasion of Egypt by the Italian 10th Army (9–16 September 1940), Operation Compass (9–16 December) by the Western Desert Force (WDF), the Battle of Sidi Barrani and the pursuit of the 10th Army into Cyrenaica (16 December 1940 – 9 February 1941) the fortified Italian position at the Al Jaghbub Oasis was besieged by parts of the 6th Australian Division.
Battle of Bardia
3 January 1941 – 5 January 1941
The Battle of Bardia was fought between 3 and 5 January 1941, as part of Operation Compass, the first British military operation of the Western Desert campaign of the Second World War. It was the first battle of the war in which an Australian Army formation took part, the first to be commanded by an Australian general and the first to be planned by an Australian staff.
British capture of Tobruk
21 January 1941 – 22 January 1941
The British capture of Tobruk was a battle fought between 21 and 22 January 1941, as part of Operation Compass, the first offensive of the Western Desert Force (WDF) in the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. After defeating the Italians in the Battle of Bardia (3–5 January 1941), the 6th Australian Division and the 7th Armoured Division pressed on and made contact with the Italian garrison in Tobruk on 6 January.
Battle of Kufra
31 January 1941 – 1 March 1941
The Capture of Kufra (French: Prise de Koufra, Italian: Cufra) was part of the Allied Western Desert Campaign during the Second World War. Kufra is a group of oases in the Kufra District of south-eastern Cyrenaica in the Libyan Desert.
Operation Sonnenblume
6 February 1941 – 25 May 1941
Operation Sonnenblume (Unternehmen Sonnenblume, "Operation Sunflower") was the name given to the dispatch of German and Italian troops to North Africa in February 1941, during the Second World War. The Italian 10th Army (10ª Armata) had been destroyed by the British, Commonwealth, Empire and Allied Western Desert Force attacks during Operation Compass (9 December 1940 – 9 February 1941).
Siege of Tobruk
10 April 1941 – 27 November 1941
The siege of Tobruk took place between 10 April and 27 November 1941, during the Western Desert campaign (1940–1943) of the Second World War. An Allied force, consisting mostly of the 9th Australian Division, commanded by Lieutenant-General Leslie Morshead, was besieged in the North African port of Tobruk by German and Italian forces.
Battle of Gazala
26 May 1942 – 21 June 1942
The Battle of Gazala, also the Gazala Offensive (Italian: Battaglia di Ain el-Gazala; German: Schlacht von Gazala), was fought near the village of Gazala during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War, west of the port of Tobruk in Libya, from 26 May to 21 June 1942. Axis troops consisting of German (Panzerarmee Afrika; Generaloberst Erwin Rommel) and Italian units fought the British Eighth Army (General Sir Claude Auchinleck, also Commander-in-Chief Middle East) composed mainly of British Commonwealth, Indian and Free French troops.
Battle of Bir Hakeim
26 May 1942 – 11 June 1942
The Battle of Bir Hakeim (Arabic pronunciation: [biʔr ħaˈkiːm] ) took place at Bir Hakeim, an oasis in the Libyan desert southwest of Tobruk, during the Battle of Gazala (26 May – 21 June 1942). The 1st Free French Brigade (Général de brigade Marie-Pierre Kœnig) defended the position from 26 May to 11 June against Axis forces of the Panzerarmee Afrika (Generaloberst Erwin Rommel) that captured Tobruk ten days later.
Axis capture of Tobruk
21 June 1942
The Axis capture of Tobruk, also known as the Fall of Tobruk and the Second Battle of Tobruk (17–21 June 1942) was part of the Western Desert campaign in Libya during the Second World War. The battle was fought by the Panzerarmee Afrika (Armata Corazzata Africa in Italian), a German–Italian military force in North Africa which included the Afrika Korps (Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel), against the British Eighth Army (General Neil Ritchie) which comprised contingents from Britain, India, South Africa and other Allied nations.
Battle of El Agheila
11 December 1942 – 18 December 1942
The Battle of El Agheila was a brief engagement of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. It took place in December 1942 between Allied forces of the Eighth Army (General Bernard Montgomery) and the Axis forces of the German-Italian Panzer Army (Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel), during the long Axis withdrawal from El Alamein to Tunis.
Gulf of Sidra incident
19 August 1981
In the first Gulf of Sidra incident, 19 August 1981, two Libyan Sukhoi Su-22M3 Fitter-G fired upon two U.S. Grumman F-14A Tomcats and were subsequently shot down off the Libyan coast. Libya had claimed that the entire Gulf was their territory, at 32° 30′ N, with an exclusive 62-nautical-mile (115 km; 71 mi) fishing zone, which Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi asserted as "The Line of Death" in 1973.
Battle of Maaten al-Sarra
5 September 1987
The Battle of Maaten al-Sarra was fought between Chad and Libya on September 5, 1987, during the Toyota War. The battle took the form of a surprise Chadian raid against the Libyan Maaten al-Sarra Air Base, meant to remove the threat of Libyan airpower, that had already thwarted the Chadian attack on the Aouzou Strip in August.