Page "Armed Forces of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya" Paragraph 2

After Britain succeeded in occupying the Libyan territories, the need for the British-trained and equipped Sanusi troops appeared to be over.

The Sanusi Army was reluctant to disband, however, and the majority of its members arranged to be transferred to the local police force in Cyrenaica under the British military administration.

When Libya gained its independence in 1951, veterans of the original Sanusi Army formed the nucleus of the Royal Libyan Army.

British Army troops, part of Middle East Command and comprising 25th Armoured Brigade and briefly 10th Armoured Division, were still present after independence and stayed in Libya until at least 1957.

Despite the Sanussi linage of the new army, King Idris I quickly came to distrust them.

The Free Officers ' coup of 1952 in Egypt led many Libyan officers to be disenchanted with Idris and become great followers of Gamal Abdel Nasser.

This situation reached the stage that the British Army officers retained by Idris to train and advise the new armed forces deemed the force entirely untrustworthy.

They increasingly saw their role as to watch the army rather than to raise its effectiveness.