Fighting increased after the dictator Benito Mussolini took power in Italy. Idris (later King of Libya) fled to Egypt in 1922. From 1922 to 1928, Italian forces under General Badoglio waged a "punitive pacification" campaign. Badoglio's successor in the field, Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, accepted the commission from Mussolini on the condition that he was allowed to crush Libyan resistance without having to follow either Italian or international law. Mussolini reportedly agreed immediately and Graziani intensified the oppression. Some Libyans continued to defend themselves, with the strongest voices of dissent coming from Cyrenaica. Omar Mukhtar, a sheikh of the Sennusi tribe, became the leader of the uprising.