Soldier for a Summer

Book excerpt: Housam "Sam" Najjair was born in Dublin to an Irish mother and a Libyan father. In June 2011, Libya was being torn apart by civil war; though he was just thirty-two years old, Sam left Ireland on a one-way ticket to Tunisia, crossing into war-torn Libya, to join the uprising against the dictator Gaddafi. "Soldier for a Summer"charts his journey from his arrival into Libya, training in the Western Mountains for twelve weeks before advancing on Tripoli where, on August 20, 2011, Sam and the now famous Tripoli Brigade, a unit of the National Liberation Army of Libya, were the first revolutionaries to enter, and subsequently secure, the city and Martyr Square. From meeting representatives of NATO to covert operatives, arms deals, the death of his close friend and colleague, safe-houses and a captured girl sniper, this is the astounding story of how a young Irish-Libyan revolutionary became a battlefield commander of a unit of the National Liberation Army of Libya. This is an account of the remarkable events in a single season that liberated a country and transformed Housam Najjair."