Contrary to popular belief, Sirte was not Muammar Gaddafi's birthplace. Gaddafi's birthplace was in a village 20 km south of Sirte, which is calledQasr Abu Hadi. The inhabitants of this village were farmers. Just a few significant people from theGaddafi tribe, of whom some were born in Sirte, were appointed to government roles during the time of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya until theNATO-led invasion of Libya in 2011.[1] Sirte was favoured by theGaddafi government.[2] The city was the final major stronghold of Gaddafi loyalists in the civil war and Gaddafi waskilled there by rebel forces on 20 October 2011 after sustaining major injury caused by French Air Force Bombs discharged as part of theNATO intervention. During thebattle, Sirte was left almost completely in ruins, with many buildings destroyed or damaged.[3] Six months after the civil war, almost 60,000 inhabitants, more than 70 percent of the pre-war population, had returned.[4]
Sirte is built near the site of the ancientPhoenician city ofMacomedes-Euphranta,[5] which was an important link on the road along theMediterranean Sea littoral. It is the last confirmed place where thePunic language 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",[6] called "inhospita Syrtis" inVirgil'sAeneid.[7]John Milton'sParadise Lost 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.[8] 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 toIbadi Islam along with the surrounding region.[8] A mosque was probably built at Surt during this period, although no authors mention a mosque in Surt until the 11th century.[8] The most detailed early description of the city was written byIbn Hawqal, who passed through Surt in 947 on his way toal-Mahdiyyah (which was then the capital of theFatimid Caliphate).[8] 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".[8] He described it as inhabited by Berbers, who stored rainwater incisterns and were engaged in various forms of agriculture and livestock herding.[8] They grewdates, grapes, and other fruits, and kept goats and camels.[8] Another local industry wasalum mining, which was exported.[8] According to Ibn Hawqal, Surt at this point was wealthier than nearbyAjdabiya.[8]
Surt was probably fortified by the Fatimid caliphal-Mu'izz around 965, in preparation for theFatimid conquest of Egypt under his generalJawhar al-Siqilli.[8] The Fatimids founded the new city ofCairo to serve as their new capital in Egypt.[8] After they moved there, the Surt region became a battleground between the Fatimids and theZirid dynasty ofKairouan.[8] TheBanu Khazrun ofTripoli also controlled Surt for a while as Fatimid allies.[8] Around 1037, theBanu Hilal began to settle in the Surt region.[8] Somewhat later,al-Bakri described Surt as "a large city by the sea" with a mosque, ahammam, andbazaars (these three features are mentioned for the first time here).[8] He listed three gates in the city walls: Qiblī (facing southeast), Jawfī (facing inland), and "a small one facing the sea".[8] There were no suburbs outside the walls.[8] He also noted, "its animals are goats and their meat is juicy and tender, the like of which is not found in Egypt."[8] Al-Bakri also alluded to a merchant community including Arabs, Berbers, Persians, andCopts.[8]
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.[8] The 12th-century authoral-Idrisi apparently visited the Surt region and wrote about the city's decline.[8] The 13th-century authorAli ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi wrote that its forts were still standing.[8] At some point thereafter, the old city of Surt was finally abandoned.[8]
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.[8] 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.[8] No evidence of the harbor has been found, though.[8]
In 1842 theOttomans built a fortress atMarsat al Zaafran ("saffron harbour") which became known asQasr al Zaafran ("saffroncastle"), and later as Qasr Sert. The fortress was built under sultanAbdülmecid I as part of the restoration of Ottoman control overTripolitania after the fall of theKaramanli dynasty. It was around this fortification, which was taken over and repaired by theItalians in 1912, that the settlement of Sirte grew up.[9]
Sirte served as an administrative centre under Italian rule.[10] During theNorth African Campaign of theSecond World War 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."[11]
The village grew into a prominent town after theSecond World War for two reasons – the discovery and exploitation of oil nearby and the birth ofMuammar Gaddafi in 1942 in a tent atQasr Abu Hadi, some 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of Sirte. He was sent to the primary school at Sirte at the age of ten.[12]
Afterseizing 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.[13]Al-Tahadi University was established in 1991.
In 1999, Gaddafi proposed the idea of creating a "United States of Africa" with Sirte as its administrative centre. Ambitious plans to build a new international airport and seaport were announced in 2007.[14]
In 1999, theSirte Declaration was signed in the city by theOrganisation of African Unity in a conference that was hosted by Gaddafi. In 2007 he also hosted talks in Sirte to broker a peace agreement between the government ofSudan and warring factions inDarfur.[15]
In 2008,China Railway Construction Corporation won a $2.6 billion bid in Libya to build a west-to-east coastal railway 352 km (219 mi) fromKhoms to Sirte and a south-to-west railway 800 km (500 mi) long for iron ore transport from the southern citySabha toMisrata.[16]
On 5 March 2011,anti-Gaddafi forces said they were preparing to capture the city.[17] However, on 6 March, the rebel advance was stopped during theBattle of Bin Jawad before reaching Sirte. Government forces launched a counter-offensive thatrecaptured Ra's Lanuf[18][19] and continued to advance as far as the outskirts of the de facto rebel capital ofBenghazi. UnderUnited Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, 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,[20] but other news organisations later reported that rebels and Gaddafi forces were fighting on the road betweenBin Jawad and Sirte.[21] 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.[22]
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. AsTripoli came under attack, other rebel forces based inBenghazi broke the military stalemate in the eastern desert, takingBrega andRa's Lanuf. At the same time, rebels inMisrata pushed eastward along the coast towards Sirte, which then faced a pincer movement from the rebels on two fronts.[23] On 24 August, rebel units were reported as being 56 km (35 mi) from the city.[24] On 27 August, Bin Jawad – about 150 km east – was once again recaptured by the rebels. It was also reported that theNational Transitional Council were in negotiations with tribal figures from the city for it to surrender to rebel forces.[25]
Anti-Gaddafi forcessurrounded the city during September 2011 and began a long, difficultbattle 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 hid in a largedrainage pipe before being captured by NTC fighters.[27][28] Hewas killed in custody less than an hour later.[29]
Sirte was left heavily damaged by a month of intense fighting, which was preceded byNATO airstrikes throughout the war,[30] and was considered to have been subjected to the most damage of any Libyan city during the civil war.[31] Many homes were ransacked and looted by fighters, angering residents including those loyal to Gaddafi and those sympathetic to the revolution.[32] Many streets and buildings also experienced flooding as water mains were destroyed, though it was unclear by which side.[33] 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.[34]
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.[4] In February 2012, some local residents said they felt abandoned by theNational Transitional Council (NTC), but the new government had promised to rebuild the city and Deputy Prime MinisterMustafa Abushagur insisted this would happen.[35] Some local rebuilding was done in 2012 and 2013,[31] but reconstruction of municipal services did not begin until a 9 million Libyan dinars reconstruction project started in 2014.[36]
During thewidespread chaos andcivil war that followed the revolution and led to the erosion of territorial control under theGeneral National Congress (GNC) (which had succeeded the NTC) and the new GNC (NGNC),local loyalists to theIslamic State (IS), which had previously seized the port city ofDerna, launched an attack in March 2015 to capture Sirte, which was then occupied by theLibya Shield Force, an NGNC-linked militia. Sirte fell to IS loyalists in May 2015.[37]
Following the formation of a new Tripoli-based government, theGovernment of National Accord (GNA), an offensive backed by theUnited Nations was launched in May 2016 by GNA-aligned forces, known as theBunyan Marsous, to recapture Sirte.[38] After two months of advances, pro-government forces took control of IS's Sirte headquarters on 10 August 2016,[39] although pockets of IS resistance continued to prolong fighting through the end of the year.[40] Sirte was substantially under the control of the GNA by 6 December 2016.[40][41][42] A contributing factor to the recapture of the city were the over 400 airstrikes organized by theUnited States Africa Command against IS positions during the months-long battle.[38] Approximately 700 Libya pro-government fighters and 2,000 IS loyalists died in Sirte between May and November 2016.[38][43]
GNA forceslaunched an attack to capture Sirte from the LNA on 6 June 2020.[46] LNA forces proposed a ceasefire backed byEgypt.[47] 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 fromMiG-29s on a huge Turkish convoy of military and GNA forces heading for Sirte, destroying it and resulting in heavy GNA and possibly Turkish casualties.[48][unreliable source?]
^"Sirte Climate Normals 1991–2020".World Meteorological Organization Climatological Standard Normals (1991–2020). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Archived fromthe original on 14 September 2023. Retrieved14 September 2023.
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