Shar al-Shatt was the location of the "Massacre of Italians at Sciara Sciat", that occurred on October 23, 1911 in a village on the outskirts of Tripoli, Libya. According to Italian sources, 503 officers and men were killed in the incident, which occurred shortly after the beginning of the Italo-Turkish War. It was the biggest loss of life for Italian troops prior to World War I.
History
The Italian fleet appeared off Ottoman Tripoli on the evening of September 28, 1911; the city was quickly conquered by 1,500 Italian sailors, who were initially welcomed by the population. Despite the quick Italian conquest of the city of Tripoli and surroundings from the Ottoman Empire by the first days of October, the interior of Ottoman Libya shortly broke out into revolt, with Italian authorities losing control over large areas of the region. Indeed, even before the arrival of the Italian forces, cells led by Ottoman officers encouraged native Libyans to infiltrate Italian-owned industries and companies in Tripolitania, reconnoiter roads, and take a census of all males able to bear arms in Tripoli and Derna, in preparation for a jihad of the local Muslims. Even though the Arab population of the city of Tripoli welcomed the Italians, the interior of Tripolitania rose in revolt from the first weeks and were committed against the Italian soldiers and civilians by local Muslims, as happened in Shar al-Shatt. The IV Battalion of the 11th Bersaglieri Regiment of Colonel Gustavo Fara had been positioned at the small oasis village as part of the defenses of Tripoli. On October 23 the force of about five hundred soldiers came under attack from the Turks and Arabs and was quickly overrun and decimated. Approximately 290 'bersaglieri' who survived the initial assault surrendered to the jihadists in the local cemetery, but all were tortured and killed. Argentine journalist Enzo D'Armesano of the Buenos Aires newspaper "La Prensa" was present the next morning in Shar al-Shatt and reported the cruelty with a description that impressed the Argentinian people. He reported that many local civilians approached the Italians' lines from behind, initially showing friendship, only to fall upon them with knives. He wrote that the only three survivors of the 4th Battalion accused the Arab civilians of the Shar al-Shatt oasis of "tradimento"
Aftermath
Officially 21 Italian officers and 482 soldiers died at Shar al-Shatt, 290 of them massacred after surrender in the cemetery One of the opponents of the Italian intervention in Ottoman Libya, the future fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, began to change his initially favorable opinion of the native Libyans after news of the massacre reached Italy. In the late 1920s he remembered the "Sciara Sciatt Massacre" when he imposed his Pacification of Libya. In 1932 Mussolini inaugurated a monument to the Bersaglieri in Rome, especially honoring those who died at Shar al-Shatt. The monument was designed by architect Italo Mancini and was created by sculptor Publio Morbiducci.
