The Battle of Tibrin of 22 BBY was a failed Galactic Republic attempt to oust the Confederacy of Independent Systems' military presence from the planet Tibrin during the Clone Wars. The native Ishi Tib populace had previously welcomed the arrival of Separatist leader Count Dooku and his cadre of Dark Acolytes, who executed Suribran Tu—the planet's unpopular, pro-Republic premier—and overthrew his totalitarian regime. Consequently, the Ishi Tib aided the Confederacy when Jedi and clone troopers from the Grand Army of the Republic came to retake Tibrin. The result was a catastrophic Republic defeat, with Tibrin retaining its Separatist ties. Many of the clone soldiers who survived the battle, including Commander Gree of the 41st Elite Corps, adopted a hairstyle called the double stripe to honor their fallen comrades.
The Ishi Tib laud Dooku's execution of Suribran Tu.
Since the outbreak of the Clone Wars in the year 22 BBY, the native Ishi Tib inhabitants of the Mid Rim planet Tibrin clamored to join the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Yet the planet's dictatorial premier, Suribran Tu, retained the support of the Galactic Republic, even though his administration oppressed the will of the people and was marred by corrupt practices, such as strong-arm tactics and political assassinations.
When Separatist leader Count Dooku came to negotiate for the rights to use Tibrin as a base, he was unimpressed with Tu's willingness to become a Separatist-loyal planetary ruler simply as a means of preserving his own position and power. Seeing no benefit to further deliberations, Dooku beheaded Tu with his lightsaber and had the ex-dictator's head publicly displayed for the citizenry to see. Dooku also installed one of his Dark Acolytes, Sora Bulq, as Tibrin's provisional governor, with orders to purge Tu's inner circle—everyone from military and political officers to his family. The Ishi Tib population, grateful to be free of Tu and the Republic, extolled Dooku as a liberator and eagerly joined the Confederacy, inciting a revolution on their world.
Commander Gree was one of many Tibrin survivors to wear the double stripe.
Unwilling to let the Confederacy's influence on Tibrin go unchallenged, the Republic sent clone trooper forces from the Grand Army of the Republic, under the command of Jedi officers, to uproot Dooku's military presence on Tibrin. Commander Gree of the 41st Elite Corps, Marshal Commander Cody of the 212th Attack Battalion, and Captain Rex of the 501st Legion were among the Grand Army's troop leadership. However, the Ishi Tib resisted the Republic's attempts to meddle in their homeworld's affairs. The campaign ended in a crushing defeat for the Republic forces, with many clone soldiers perishing in the battle.
The Battle of Tibrin, as the grisly campaign came to be known, resulted in the Ishi Tib preserving their loyalty to the Confederacy. Though they continued to send a representative to the Republic Senate in the form of Senator Gume Saam, he held clandestine connections to the Separatists and the Techno Union, becoming involved in a war-profiteering plot to thwart a peace initiative between the Republic and the Separatist Parliament. To honor the comrades they lost at Tibrin, Commander Gree and many other clone survivors of the battle adopted a red-colored buzz cut that became known as the double stripe.
The Battle of Tibrin was first mentioned, albeit unidentified, in the 2005 novel Labyrinth of Evil, written by James Luceno. The event was later identified in the thirty-second issue of the The Official Star Wars Fact File series, which was published on August 13, 2014.
- The Essential Atlas
- The Official Star Wars Fact FilePart 32