First Battle of Benghazi

First Battle of Benghazi
	Part of Libyan Civil War
	; A downtown Benghazi government revolutionary committee office after it was torched by demonstrators.
Date	15–20 February 2011
Location	Benghazi, Bayda, Derna, Libya
Result	Decisive Anti-Gaddafi victory; Beginning of the Libyan Civil War; Benghazi becomes a core of the Anti-Gaddafi forces;
Belligerents
Anti-Gaddafi forces Defected army units; Armed protesters;	Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
Commanders and leaders
Abdul Fatah Younis (last day)	Al-Saadi Gaddafi
Strength
10,000	Khamis Brigade; Fadheel Brigade; Tariq Brigade; 325 mercenaries
Casualties and losses
Benghazi:; 110–257 killed; 9 missing; Bayda:; 63 killed; Derna:; 29 killed; Rebel soldiers:; 130 killed; Total:; 332–479 killed; 9 missing; 3 T-54/55 tanks or IFVs destroyed	163 killed; 236 captured; 3 T-54/55 tanks or IFVs destroyed

The First Battle of Benghazi was fought between army units and militiamen loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and anti-Gaddafi forces in February 2011 during the Libyan Civil War. The battle mainly took place in Benghazi, the second-largest city in Libya, with related clashes occurring in the nearby Cyrenaican cities of Bayda and Derna. In Benghazi itself most of the fighting occurred during a siege of the government-controlled Katiba compound.