The Fist Crushing a U.S. Fighter Plane Sculpture is a gold-coloured monument located in

Misrata Misrata ( ; , Libyan Arabic: ; also spelled Misratah and known by the Italian spelling Misurata) is a city in northwestern Libya located in the Misrata District, situated to the east of Tripoli on the Mediterranean coast near Cape Misrata. ...

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

. It was once located at the Bab al-Azizia compound in the

n capital of

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis (from , meaning "three cities") may refer to: Places Greece *Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in the Pelasgiotis district, Thessaly, near Larissa ...

. The sculpture was commissioned by the nation's leader, Colonel

Muammar Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi (20 October 2011) was a Libyan military officer, revolutionary, politician and political theorist who ruled Libya from 1969 until Killing of Muammar Gaddafi, his assassination by Libyan Anti-Gaddafi ...

following the

1986 bombing of Libya The United States Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps carried out air strikes, code-named Operation El Dorado Canyon, against Libya on 15 April 1986 in retaliation for the West Berlin discotheque bombing ten days earlier, which U.S. President Ron ...

by United States aircraft. It was built in the shape of an arm and hand squeezing a fighter plane. It may have been designed to symbolize the apparent downing of an

F-111 The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark is a retired supersonic, medium-range, multirole combat aircraft. Production models of the F-111 had roles that included attack (e.g. interdiction), strategic bombing (including nuclear weapons capabilit ...

by Libyan anti-air units in the 1986 bombing. During the

2011 Libyan civil war The Libyan civil war, also known as the First Libyan Civil War and Libyan Revolution, was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya that was fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that were ...

, the sculpture was frequently noted in media coverage of televised speeches given by Gaddafi on 22 February and 20 March 2011, in which he vowed to "die a martyr" to prevent anti-government rebels prevailing. On 23 August, at the height of the Battle of Tripoli, NTC rebels breached the Bab al-Azizia compound and international news stations broadcast pictures of rebels gathered around the statue, with one fighter having climbed onto it. Graffiti had been drawn on its base by rebel forces. At some point in time, the U.S. flag and initials U.S.A. had been removed from the representation of the plane. The sculpture is now on display at the Misrata War Museum.

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Photograph
at BBC In Pictures
Photograph
at Esquire magazine, 2008 {{Tripoli Public art Libyan art Buildings and structures in Tripoli, Libya Political art Anti-American sentiment in Africa Allegorical sculptures Libya–United States relations Libyan civil war (2011) Aviation art Monuments and memorials in Libya

See also

References

External links