LNA / Khalifa Haftar Background
Khalifa Haftar was one of the young army officers who seized power from Libya's King Idris in 1969, and remained a close ally of Gaddafi, who promoted him to chief of staff of the armed forces. Gaddafi gave him overall command of the conflict with Chad, but Libya was defeated by Chadian forces. Haftar and 300 of his men were captured by the Chad in 1987. Having longy denied the presence of Libyan troops in the country, Gaddafi disowned the general, a betrayal which prompted him to devote the next two decades towards toppling the Libyan leader.
As of 1987 over 20 opposition groups existed outside Libya. The most important in 1987 was the Libyan National Salvation Front, formed in October 1981. This National Front claimed responsibility for the daring attack on Qadhafi’s headquarters at Bab al Aziziyah on May 8, 1984. Although the coup attempt failed and Qadhafi escaped unscathed, dissident groups claimed that some 80 Libyans, Cubans, and East Germans perished. Significantly, various sources as early as 1984 which claimed the United States Central Intelligence Agency trained and supported the National Front before and after the May 8 operation.
The Chadian conflict marked a schism between both men as Gaddafi disowned Haftar after the latter was defeated and captured by French-backed Chadian forces in 1987. After trying to lead an anti-Gadaffi rebellion from various African countries, in 1990 the CIA negotiated a settlement for Haftar to move to the United States under the US refugee program. Haftar spent the next two decades incessantly trying to topple Gaddafi from power – from exile in his home in Virginia to CIA headquarters. This included a failed coup attempt against Gaddafi in the Jabal Akhdar mountains of eastern Libya in 1996, after which he moved back to suburban Virginia.
By October 31, 1996, Colonel Khalifa Haftar, who was leader of this Libyan National Army, the armed wing of the National Front, was quoted as saying, "Force is the only effective method for dealing with Qadhafi." Colonel Khalifa Haftar spent two decades of his life in suburban Virginia, where he had no visible means of support.
His return to Libya following the 2011 uprising took many Libyans by surprise, and has since changed the dynamics of what remains a civil conflict marred by allegations of human rights abuses. Having obtained the support of the House of Representatives in Tobruk, Haftar’s forces launched Operation Dignity to rout extremist militants from Libya’s second largest city of Benghazi.
After the fall of the capital, frequent clashes between members of the different brigades became a norm there. During the first week of December 2011, Tripoli’s inhabitants protested, demanding the departure of armed militias from their city. A few days after these protests, gun battles erupted between members of the Zintan militia, who aimed to demonstrate their independence from the interim government and its institutions, and followers of Brigadier Khalifa Haftar, a commanding officer of the yet-to-be-built Libyan National Army. Renewed fighting between militias in the first week of January 2012 led NTC leader Mustapha Abdeljalil to warn of the risks of another civil war.
On 14 February 2014 Major General Khalifa al-Haftar, the former chief of staff of the post-Qaddafi Libyan army, attempted to carry out a coup. Appearing in uniform in a video uploaded to YouTube, the retired general vaguely explained that the General National Congress’s work would be suspended, while intimating that the military would take over the affairs of the state. Several of Libya’s ministers quickly dismissed the whole affair as ridiculous, and most analysts wondered what state and what military al-Haftar was referring to.
Puzzling questions were raised by the two contradictions regarding the February 2014 announcement of a failed coup attempt by Haftar, former head of the Libyan ground forces. First: There is no state in Libya to be seized via coup; even if there were such a thing, there is no army in the true sense of the word that might carry out such an endeavor, given that the militias are stronger than the fragile army.
Forces apparently loyal to Haftar said they suspended parliament 18 May 2014 after earlier leading a military assault against lawmakers, directly challenging the legitimacy of the country's weak central government three years after the overthrow of dictator Muammar Gadhafi.
The revolt against Islamists who dominate Libyan politics threatened to spiral into an outright battle for power after an elite army unit, the Special Forces, joined the uprising 19 May 2014. The commander of the Special Forces announced his support for Haftar and his National Libyan Army.
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