writting to Mr. Yasser name : Raeed Talal Sairafi -- ID : 500037

Omar Mukhtar

Omar Mukhtar (aka Omar Al-Mukhtar) (1862-1931) was from the tribe of Mnifa, born in a small town called Zawia Janzour. He was the leader of the resistance movement against the Italian military occupation of Libya in the 1920's and 1930's. In 1912, following the Italian capture of Libya from the occupying Turks the previous year, Omar Mukhtar organized and devised strategies for the Libyan resistance against the Italian colonization.
In October of 1911, Italian battleships reached the shores of Tripoli, Libya with an intent to stay. The Italian’s fleet leader “Farafelli” made a demand to the Turks to surrender Tripoli to the Italians or the city would be destroyed at once. The Othman Turks fled and the Italians attacked Tripoli anyway, bombing the city for three days and thereafter proclaiming the Libyan population in Tripoli to be “committed and strongly bound to Italy.” That would mark the beginning of a series of battles between the Italian occupiers and the Libyan Mujahedeen (the Arabic word for freedom fighters).
A teacher of the Koran by profession, Mukhtar was also skilled in desert guerrilla tactics. He knew his country’s geography well, and he knew how to use that to his advantage in battles against the Italians, who were not accustomed to desert warfare. He repeatedly led his small, highly mobile groups into successful attacks against the Italians, after which they would fade back into the terrain. Mukhtar’s men skillfully attacked outposts, ambushed troops, and cut lines of supply and communication. The Italians were left astonished and embarrassed to have been outsmarted and outmaneuvered by a mere “bedouin.”