Battle of Maaten Al-Sarra - Attack

Attack

Before the final Libyan assault, Habré had withdrawn Hassan Djamous and most of his veteran troops, planning to let them rest for a new offensive that would finally secure the Strip. Habré, judging by the decisive role played by close-range Libyan air strikes in the setback at Aouzou, concluded that Libya's greatest advantage was its ability to conduct endless air strikes. To remove this threat, Habré ordered Djamous to take 2,000 troops and destroy the main Libyan airbase in southern Libya, Maaten al-Sarra, 60 miles north of the Chadian-Libyan border. Habré may also have been encouraged in this raid by French President François Mitterrand's public declaration on September 3 that the Red Line was obsolete and thus French troops in Chad would no longer be bound by it.

Chad made military preparations for what seemed to be an attempt to retake Aouzou. Instead, encouraged by the United States, which supplied satellite intelligence, the FANT attacked Maaten al-Sarra on September 5, taking the Libyans by surprise, and apparently the French as well, who reacted by refusing to provide intelligence or logistic support. Djamous's troops were careful to follow the wadis, thus not exposing themselves, and they also took advantage of careless Libyan patrolling and security, intending to take the airbase's garrison and its defenders by surprise. To confuse the Libyans, the FANT forces first proceeded north and northwest in Libyan territory, then turned east and descended upon Maaten al-Sarra; as a result, the Libyan officers took them for reinforcements and attempted to join them.

Notwithstanding the defenders' 2,500-strong garrison, tank brigade, artillery and extensive fortifications, the Chadian troops rapidly overcame the Libyan forces and assumed control of the base, starkly revealing the professional incompetence of the Libyan military. While the FANT's losses were minor, Libya suffered staggering casualties, with 1,713 Libyans killed, 300 taken prisoner and hundreds of others forced to flee into the surrounding desert. The Chadians then proceeded to demolish all the equipment they could not carry back, including 70 tanks, 30 APCs, 8 radar stations, a radar scrambling device, numerous SAMs, and 26 aircraft—including 3 MiG-23s, 1 Mi-24, and 4 Mirages; they also tore up the base's two runways. Then, traveling without lights beneath the moon and stars, the FANT column withdrew to Chadian soil on September 6, and the Chadian government declared that the battle "must be written in gold letters in the great book of victories."