Today marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Libyan army, which has defied many difficulties in its history to unify Libya and preserve its sovereignty, and has become a symbol that brings together all citizens at the time of disputes.
Today, Libyans may dream of having a unified army that protects the parts and borders of the country, but this was not a dream decades ago, rather; it was a reality that had been realized through the efforts of the founding fathers of the Libyan state.
At the end of the 1930s, years after the execution of the sheikh of the martyrs, Omar Al-Mukhtar, and the decline of resistance inside Libya, while the country was under Italian occupation, a group of tribesmen worked to establish an army for liberation under the leadership of the Emir – at the time – Idriss Al-Senussi.
The beginning was in late 1939, when the late King Idriss Al-Senussi called for a meeting in Alexandria attended by about 40 people, to discuss the liberation of Libya from the Italian occupation, and the attendees decided to authorize the king to enter into negotiations with England to form an army that was later called the “Senussi Army.” to enter the ongoing war in Libya.
On August 7, 1940, Prince Idriss invited another meeting in Cairo, and two days later, the dream found its way to become a reality, to begin the war against the Italians with the help of Britain, until the liberation of the “Cyrenaica” region in its time, and then access to the liberation of Tripoli in early 1943.
In 1952, and also on August 9, he announced the Libyan dream, the establishment of the Libyan army, to protect the entire territory, and the beginning of a real march for a professional force for the Libyan state, after which the training and training process began, and the task of the first Chief of Staff at that time, Colonel Imran Al-Jadara Al-Hassi, took over.
