On 23 October 1911, Italian troops were attacked by a 10,000-strong[citation needed] Turkish-Arab force while marching through the Mechiya oasis, at a place called Sciara Sciat (Arabic: Shar al-Shatt), and over 500 Bersaglieri were killed, with some accounts[citation needed] stating that Turkish forces captured two companies in a nearby cemetery, and massacred 250 Italian captives.[2] Italian corpses were allegedly nailed to trees and their eyes and genitals mutilated, some claim in retaliation for sexual offenses against local women perpetrated by the Italian troops.[3]