Word: cyrenaica
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...week's end, the Revolutionary Council confirmed that its troops had occupied Benghazi, the principal city of Cyrenaica in eastern Libya and stronghold of King Idris and his Senussi sect. The continuation of the curfew suggested that the rebels might be encountering opposition, possibly from the more than 6,000-man British-trained Cyrenaican militia or the national police force, which is almost twice the size of the 10,000-man Libyan army. Radio Tripoli was heard urging rebel troops to seize the "police helicopters" and to "be ready to counter any internal and external acts against the republic...
...Wavells have fought Britain's battles for almost a thousand years. Their ancestors served William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings; French members of the family were Crusaders in the same Middle East deserts where centuries later Field Marshal Wavell rode with Allenby. Wavell of Cyrenaica was the one-eyed professional soldier, author and poet who smashed the Italians in North Africa (1940) only to lose to Rommel, who commanded Singapore until it fell (1942), governed India as viceroy (1943-47). His fate had been to fight the early delaying actions when Britain was behind. Fighting...
...grim winter of 1942, while the Afrika Korps and the British Eighth Army were slugging it out in Cyrenaica, Winston Churchill rose in the House of Commons and said: "We have a very daring and skillful opponent against us, and, may I say across the havoc of war, a great general." Even before he died in 1944, Erwin Rommel had achieved legendary status among his Anglo-Saxon foes. By now he has a safe niche among those defeated military commanders-Lee and Napoleon are outstanding examples-who rise at least equal to their conquerors in the esteem of the military...
...Between Tripoli, which is the country's largest city, and Fezzan, its largest province, there are no telephone, telegraph or radio connections. Nor is there much homogeneity between the three provinces. Except for the late years of Italian rule (1935 until World War II), Tripolitania (pop. 800,000), Cyrenaica (pop. 300,000) and Fezzan (pop. 40,000) have never been jointly administered...
...provisional assembly of 60 Libyans-20 from each province-meeting under the U.N.'s wing, decided that the country should be a federal monarchy, drafted its constitution, and planned elections. Without argument, the assembly settled on a King-Sayid Mohammed Idris el Mahdi el Senussi, Emir of Cyrenaica, spiritual and political leader of the devout and powerful Moslem Order of the Senussiya, and in his own right the strongest personality in Libya...