the Middle East and twenty were immediately purchased by Qatar. The Qatari Cascavel sale proved to be a major success for Engesa, and Brazil's first successful inroad into the Arabian arms trade. Abu Dhabi followed suit with an order for two hundred Cascavels in 1977. Both Iraq and Libya chose the Cascavel in preference to the Panhard AML-90 or ERC-90 Sagaie, with the former negotiating a $400 million deal for the delivery of two hundred Cascavels and two hundred Urutus. Following the Libyan sale, Engesa unveiled a new production model carrying a Belgian designed, Cockerill main gun manufactured under licence as the EC-90 in Brazil. Service The Armed Forces of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya successfully deployed a number of EE-9 Cascavels against Egyptian tanks, likely T-54/55s or T-62s, during the Libyan–Egyptian War in 1977. Libyan Cascavels also saw action in Chad, where they engaged AML-90s of the French Foreign Legion and French Marines. An unknown number of these armoured cars were later donated to the Polisario Front and Togo, while others remained in service as late as the 2011 Libyan Civil War. Cascavels were still in use during the 2016 battle of Sirte against the Islamic State. Chad's Transitional Government of National Unity (GUNT) received five EE-9 Cascavels from Libya in 1986. Over the course of the Chadian–Libyan conflict, seventy-nine ex-Libyan Cascavels were captured or recovered from the Aouzou Strip by the Chadian military, which continues to hold them in storage. The National Army of Colombia acquired 128 new EE-9 Cascavels in 1982, in order to modernize its equipment in case of an armed conflict with Venezuela. The armoured cars saw their first and most meaningful action during the Palace of Justice siege in 1985, when members of the M-19 guerrilla group took over the Palace of Justice in Bogotá. The EE-9s made some direct hits against the structure's external walls, which started a fire that destroyed the building and killed several hostages. During the Iran–Iraq War, EE-9 Cascavels were operated by Iraqi garrisons near the Persian Gulf. The armoured cars were frequently able to outmanoeuvre the heavier Iranian tanks and tracked combat vehicles on the relatively flat, sandy terrain near the coastal region. Coalition air strikes later destroyed several north of Kuwait City in Operation Desert Storm. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the surviving fleet was condemned for scrap; however, American technical personnel did restore thirty-five to working