Cyrene War (Napoleon's World)

The Cyrene War was a conflict fought between the United States of America, England and the North African Islamic Army against the government of Cyrene, which was backed by the French government, between January and November 1998. It was the first major military conflict in the Middle East since the Persian Gulf War of 1988-89, and a major victory internationally and domestically for the beleaguered US government.

Cyrenese Turmoil After Persian Gulf War
Muammar Qaddafi, Cyrene's long-interred Prime Minister (a permanent position) had made Cyrene a powerful country since coming to power in 1976. Throughout the early 1980's, he had helped build roads, established close ties with Egypt and the Damasa Caliphate (known as the Caliphate of Arabia in the West), and made Cyrene a strong North African power.

With the outbreak of the Gulf War, however, Qaddafi found himself on the losing end of the conflict as the Arabians were humiliated by the Persians and nuclear war nearly broke out. With sanctions against the Pan-Arabian Alliance put in place by Persia, Afghanistan and their French allies, the American-backed Arabians and Cyrenese found themselves severely strapped for cash and supplies. As the 1990's began, Cyrene found itself in enormous debt despite assistance from America. After Robert Redford's election defeat in 1992, however, Cyrene found itself doubly hampered; the new American President John Burwin sympathized little with the Cyrenese or Middle Eastern matters, at least not to the extent that Redford did, and focused the majority of his attention towards Mexico, Colombia and Peru.

With their critical ally loosening its support, Qaddafi was in serious trouble at his capital in Tripoli.

1994 Military Coup and Rise of al-Massa
Burwin's withdrawal of support had a massive ripple effect across the Middle East. The Damasa Caliphate nearly collapsed, but Caliph Yusuf al-Nared managed to strike an unprecedentedly favorable oil deal with China and saved his country. Qaddafi was not so lucky, and a Persian-backed military coup in 1994 removed his government. Qaddafi fled into exile, arriving safely in London and later traveled to Philadelphia. Many of his advisors were not so lucky; the military crackdown led by general Ali al-Massa slaughtered thousands of civilians and former members of government alike.

Al-Massa employed the use of vicious French and Persian mercenaries to hunt down dissidents in his vast Saharan backyard while the military itself imported materiel from French Algeria and a steady flow of Persian money kept his nascent government afloat. The bloody civil war in Cyrene did not fully stop until 1996, when many of the hostilities were dying down.