The brief Egypt-Libya war is one of the relatively unknown chapters of Arab history and relates to the attitude of Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat towards Israel after his country's heavy defeat in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Gaddafi, appearing as the most fanatical defender of "Arab rights", after the collapse of the Federation of Arab Republics which included Egypt, Syria and Libya, started a dirty war against the Egyptian regime with the aim of overthrowing Sadat. Gaddafi's declared goal was the annihilation of Israel. But then in 1973 he began to accuse Sadat of being a coward who refused to face the Israelis.
Sadat then revealed that Gaddafi intended to sink a cruise ship carrying Israeli tourists in the Mediterranean. After this revelation, their relationship broke down. Gaddafi was significantly strengthened by the Soviet Union while he in turn strengthened the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, as Erdogan later did. Sadat reacted by bolstering Gaddafi's opponents inside and outside Libya. He even asked the US to convince Israel not to attack Egypt so that it could fight Gaddafi.
Toward the conflict
In early 1976 Gaddafi reinforced his forces on the border with Egypt, sending there two motorized divisions with a total strength of 30,000 men. Also at the Marsa Matrouh base, near the border, it deployed 80 fighter jets. In July of the same year, Gaddafi closed the Egyptian consulate in Benghazi. Sadat, however, did not move but began to gather forces on the border. In May 1977, the Soviets informed Gaddafi that Egypt was ready to attack him. But Gaddafi ignored the warnings and relaxed, even withdrawing forces from the border. In the meantime the Egyptians had moved Mirage-5, Su-20 and Su-7 aircraft near the border.
On July 12, 16 and 19, there were bloody incidents with exchange of queues at the border. Nine Egyptian soldiers were killed, Cairo admitted. At the same time, Gaddafi organized a march of Arab fanatics who would march to Cairo to demonstrate against Sadat's policy towards Israel. But the Egyptians stopped the "spontaneous protesters" at the border. In response, Gaddafi ordered an invasion.
War
The Egyptians had deployed to the border two of their divisions reinforced with commando battalions while another division was ready to intervene. In total it was about 40,000 soldiers . A relaxed Gaddafi had just three brigades on the border with a total of 5,000 men.
His army and air force were in dire straits by any measure. Many tanks and aircraft took "centuries" to maintain. Although his air force had over 100 Mirage and MiG-23 fighters, Gaddafi had fewer than 150 pilots in total, many of whom were pilots in name only. Yet he was the one who ordered an attack on Egypt, in a display of insanity!
The Libyan 9th Tank Army crossed the border into Egypt on July 21. But the Egyptians were ready. They counterattacked and put the Libyans to flight, causing them to lose more than 50% in men and material. The Libyan air force immediately intervened, bombing Shalloum, but with meager results. The Egyptians shot down two Libyan aircraft.
The Egyptians responded with four Mirages, four MiG-21s and eight Su-7s leveling two enemy air bases, while also claiming the destruction of seven Libyan aircraft on the ground. E to Egyptian Su-7 shot down. The Egyptians also successfully hit radar stations. At the same time, the two Egyptian motorized divisions invaded the Libyan territory and advanced to a depth of 24 km, putting their opponents to flight.
The Libyans lost another 60 armored vehicles. The next day the Libyan air force appeared again over the battlefield but without serious results, losing two aircraft. The Egyptians also responded with raids without serious results. In the meantime, thousands of Libyan civilians were fleeing their homes in terror and retreating west, although the Egyptians did not hit civilians.
Egyptian commandos meanwhile carried out a highly successful raid in depth, neutralizing camps and radar stations. On 23 July Gaddafi's air force tried again but lost four aircraft without achieving any serious results. The Egyptians responded with a new raid by their commandos causing great destruction to enemy military infrastructure.
The Libyans lost at least 30 tanks and at least 40 other armored vehicles over 400 of their men and at least 10 aircraft (some sources say 20). Egyptian losses were four aircraft and 100 men. After this humiliation of Gaddafi, a truce was reached with the mediation of Yasser Arafat. On August 24 there was an exchange of prisoners. In the meantime Egypt and Israel signed a formal peace agreement under which the Sinai was returned to Egypt. However, the tension between Egypt and Libya continued while according to some analysts, Gaddafi was involved in the assassination of Sadat.
