The potential absence of former Gen. Khalifa Haftar, a military strongman who leads the prominent Libyan National Army (LNA), could create a power vacuum and fuel the chaotic conditions that have allowed jihadist groups to remain active in the North African country, according to several experts.
Supporters and former members of the regime of Muammar Qaddafi in Libya may be planning to organize for a chance to run the country again after son Saif al-Islam Qaddafi announced, through an intermediary, that he would run for president in 2018, Bloomberg reports.
Libya’s strongest warlord has issued a warning to Italian ships being deployed to help turn back migrant boats inside the country’s territorial waters.
President Donald Trump’s administration is reportedly considering expanding the United States’ involvement in jihadi sanctuary Libya amid concerns that Russia’s foothold in the North African country is growing.
The Russian-backed chief of the Libyan National Army (LNA), former Gen. Khalifa Hafter, announced that his armed group has totally liberated the eastern city of Benghazi from jihadists groups, a move that extends the reach of the territory under his control, announced the Libyan strongman.
Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, son of slain Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi, was set free on Sunday by the Libyan militia group that has imprisoned him since 2011.
The competing governments of Libya – the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli and the dissenting House of Representatives (HoR) in Tobruk – are struggling to maximize production at the Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC) while limiting illegal side deals that are cannibalizing the NOC.
A militia the Associated Press identifies as a coalition of “Islamic militants and former rebels” has seized two major oil ports in Libya and threatened to take the nation’s second-largest city, Benghazi, out of the hands of the secular, internationally-recognized government’s allied military force.
Contents: Italy debates military intervention in Libya after ISIS kills Italian hostages; Looking back at the 2011 ‘Arab Spring’ Libya military intervention; Russian media calls Gaddafi’s Libya an ‘oasis of stability’; Police in Turkey use force to shut down opposition newspaper
As both secular and Islamic actors continue to stake their claims and fight for territory over war-torn Libya, Islamic State fighters have admitted to losing control of Derna, which was once identified as one of its stronghold cities, according to an AFP report.
