 Complete the following phrase:  Emperor Haile Selassies reign was interrupted on 3 October 1935 when Italian forces, under the direction of dictator Benito Mussolini, invaded and occupied Ethiopia. They occupied the capital, Addis Ababa, on 5 May 1936. Emperor Haile Selassie pleaded to the League of Nations for aid in resisting the Italians. Nevertheless, the country was formally occupied on 9 May 1936 and the Emperor went into exile. The war was full of cruelty. Italian troops used mustard gas in aerial bombardments in violation of the Geneva Conventions against combatants and civilians in an attempt to discourage the Ethiopian people from supporting the resistance. Deliberate Italian attacks against ambulances and hospitals of the Red Cross were reported. By all estimates, hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian civilians died as a result of the Italian invasion, including during the reprisal 