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Issue Date: July 30, 1977
Egyptian, Libyan Forces in Heavy Border Clashes
Egyptian and Libyan armed forces fought bloody clashes along their frontier July 21-24, with both sides using planes and tanks and reportedly inflicting heavy losses. A truce went into effect July 25 as Arab mediators sought to resolve the crisis. [See 1977 Middle East: Egyptian-Libyan Tensions Heighten]
The fighting climaxed a series of recent border incidents between the two countries. Cairo said the most serious of the previous clashes had occurred July 19 when the crews of 20 Libyan armored vehicles and nine Egyptians were killed. The first of the incidents had occurred July 12, with Egypt reporting the arrest of a number of Libyan "saboteurs" while Tripoli charged that 10 Libyan soldiers had been kidnapped by Egyptian soldiers. The Libyans said they retaliated July 16 by abducting 11 Egyptians.
In the outbreak of the major fighting July 21, Egypt claimed its forces shot down two Libyan planes, destroyed 40 Libyan tanks and captured 42 prisoners near Masaad, a Libyan town five miles from the Egyptian border. The Egyptian assault followed a Libyan armored and aerial strike against the Egyptian military post at Salum, opposite Masaad. The Libyans said the Egyptian raid on Masaad had killed civilians and destroyed houses, schools and hospitals.
Egyptian planes July 22 bombed and strafed the Libyan air base at El Adem, near Tobruk; several planes on the ground were reported destroyed. Arab diplomats in Beirut said the assault had killed at least three Soviet military technicians. Their bodies were said to have been flown back to Moscow on a Libyan plane. The aircraft also carried a Libyan military mission that was to hold consultations with Soviet officials.
The official Libyan press agency July 22 said Egyptian paratroopers had dropped deep inside Libya and that other Egyptian soldiers were using heavy armor in attacks on Libyan territory.
In a report on the hostilities July 22, President Anwar Sadat blamed "that very strange person," Libyan leader Colonel Muammer el-Qaddafi, for the deteriorating relations between their countries. "Yesterday and today our armed forces gave him a lesson he should never forget," Sadat asserted. "We are ready to repeat this lesson unless this maniac stops playing with fire." Sadat accused Qaddafi of being "an agent of a foreign power." This was an obvious reference to the Soviet Union, which had military advisers stationed in Libya. Sadat and other Egyptian officials had indicated that the Egyptian attacks on Libya were aimed primarily at Soviet-built installations in the country. Other Egyptian officials had been saying privately that the aim of their country's military operations was to aid in the ouster of Qaddafi by more moderate Libyan leaders.
In the fighting July 23, Libya charged that Egyptian planes carried out widespread raids against Libyan areas ranging from Tobruk to the Kufra oasis, 300 miles to the south.
In military operations July 24, Egypt said "a large number" of its planes bombed El Adem and two of the aircraft were lost. Libya claimed its defenses shot down 14 Egyptian jets raiding El Adem and Kufra oasis. Cairo said its planes bombed an airfield at Kufra to prevent its use by the Libyans.
Libya July 24 called up 30,000 military reservists as the fighting intensified. Egypt had moved reinforcements from the Sinai front with Israel to the border region with Libya in the previous two days, Arab diplomatic sources in Beirut reported July 24.
Radio Tripoli July 24 charged that a captured Egyptian pilot had confessed that Egyptian planes had taken off from bases in Sudan. "This is evidence of Sudan's collusion in this aggression against Libya," the radio station said.
Arab diplomatic sources in Beirut reported July 25 that Sadat had decided to launch a preemptive attack against Libya to prevent the Soviet Union from using that country as a staging area to overthrow the Egyptian and Sudanese governments. The assault, the sources said, was scheduled for the end of May but the information was leaked to Moscow. In a move to head off the attack, the Soviets circulated a memorandum to Arab governments accusing Sadat of planning an invasion of Libya. Sadat then called off the scheduled military operations and instead entered into talks with Libya and the Soviet Union to mend the breach, the sources said. The talks, however, failed. [See 1977 Middle East: Egyptian-Libyan Tensions Heighten]
After a day of heavy Egyptian attacks on Libya, President Sadat July 24 ordered his armed forces to observe an immediate cease-fire. Although Libya made no official announcement, its forces also obeyed the truce call, and the air and ground combat came to a halt.
An end to the belligerency had been sought by two Libyan military officers, who had been meeting with Egyptian officials in Cairo since July 22. They had come from Tripoli with Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat. Arafat had been shuttling between the two capitals in an effort to bring peace.
Algerian President Houari Boumedienne, one of the few Arab leaders supporting Qaddafi, joined the mediation efforts July 24. His entry into the peace process was coupled with a statement by an Algerian government newspaper, which declared that "the Libyan revolution must be preserved" because "to harm it would be an irreparable mistake with tragic consequences."
Boumedienne first conferred with Qaddafi in Tripoli and then went on to Cairo. He returned to Tripoli July 25 with Egypt's conditions for peace. These reportedly included a dismantling of the Soviet electronic surveillance system along Libya's borders; an end to Libyan border attacks; withdrawal of Libya's support of Egyptian religious extremists involved in terrorist activities in Cairo, and a halt to Libya's political "agitation" against Egypt, Sudan and Chad.
Also participating in the peace negotiations were Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheik Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah and Arab League Secretary General Mahmoud Riad.
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