Libyan National Army
A popular joke in anti-Haftar circles is that his self-styled Libyan National Army is neither Libyan (since he has Sudanese and Chadian fighters), nor national, nor indeed is it an army [a play on the Holy Roman Empire, which was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire].
Khalifa Haftar said on 27 April 2020 he had "a popular mandate" to govern the country, declaring a key political deal was over as he vowed to press his assault to seize the capital, Tripoli. The 76-year-old leader of the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) dismissed the 2015 United Nations-brokered agreement to unite the country as "a thing of the past". In a televised address, he also pledged to create a new government. The announcement came two weeks after forces loyal to the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli expelled Haftar's troops from several key cities in the country's west.
A coup plotter, a defeated soldier, a US-sponsored exiled fugitive, and now powerful rebel warlord Khalifa Haftar has had an ever-shifting position in Libya’s political landscape. Haftar, whose forces controlled parts of the country, said on 17 December 2017 he would listen to the “will of free Libyan people”, in the strongest indication so far that he might run in elections expected in 2018. He was popular among some Libyans in the east weary of the chaos but faces opposition from many in western Libya.
Libya’s national army commander Khalifa Haftar announced on 17 December 2017 the end of the Libyan Political Agreement, which was signed in Skhirat in Morocco in 2015, and said he does not recognize any decisions issued by the political bodies linked to it. “The military institution will not submit to any party unless it has gained its legitimacy from the Libyan people,” Haftar said in a televised speech. "We now control 90% of Libya, we have 75000 soldiers and we can control Libya’s south, borders with Egypt and Tunisia.” Haftar told Jeune Afrique in January 2018.
Haftar enjoyed long-standing support from key actors across the Arab peninsula including Egypt and the UAE which have made public statements reflecting their support of Haftar’s LNA, while being courted by Russian and EU officials. Haftar is backed by Egypt and Russia, but Washington under the Obama administration kept him at arm's length. By early 2017 there was growing concern in Europe that Washington might switch its support to strongman General Khalifa Haftar, who is based in the east of Libya – though Donald Trump had not signaled a change of policy. Under the Obama Administration, the US supported the the internationally recognized government in Tripoli, though it is said the CIA supported Haftar.
France has been accused of providing military backing for Haftar. In July 2016, a French military helicopter crash near the eastern city of Benghazi killed three French soldiers and forced Paris to confirm, for the first time, that its special forces were operating in Libya. Libya's UN-backed government responded by saying that their presence was a "violation" of the nation's sovereignty. It said in a statement that it was "displeased with the French government's announcement". Khalifa at that point was making significant gains in his assault on Benghazi, the birthplace of the 2011 anti-Gaddafi uprising, and military analysts suspected it was largely due to logistical support from French special forces operating in Libya. A year later, when Haftar’s forces took Benghazi, Paris welcomed the advance. Frances’s shift towards supporting Haftar was mainly championed by the foreign minister in the new Emmanuel Macron government, Jean-Yves Le Drian, who also served as minister of defence from 2012 to 2017 in the government of previous president Francois Hollande.
Haftar’s Muslim Brotherhood aversion mirrors those of the rulers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, countries that staunchly support the Libyan strongman. Haftar has forged close ties with a branch of Salafists, called Madkhalists, using their fighters and incorporating their conservative ideology in LNA-controlled parts of eastern Libya. Madkhalism is a strain of Salafism based on the teachings of Saudi cleric, Rabi al-Madkhali, who has written fatwas supporting Haftar. A fundamental tenet of the movement is to obey any prevailing Muslim leadership with unquestioning loyalty regardless of its track record, a doctrine particularly suited for Saudi Arabia’s ruling House of Saud. The Madkhalists do not participate in elections or democratic institutions, putting them at odds with the Muslim Brotherhood, fellow Islamists who endorse participatory democracy. Both Haftar and the Madkhalists are fiercely opposed to the Muslim Brotherhood, also known as the “Ikhwan” in Arabic.
Le Monde reported Haftar was taken to a hospital in Paris after the 74-year-old had a stroke in the Jordanian capital Amman. According to France 24, the field marshal had a stroke in the city of Benghazi in Libya, after which he was taken to a hospital in Amman, and only then was transferred to a Paris hospital. According to the channel, the first reports of hospitalization of Haftar appeared on 10 April 2018.
A spokesman for the Libyan National Army said 03 March 2019 the LNA had seized control of Libya's southern border with Algeria. The spokesman, Ahmed al-Mesmari, said Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter's troops entered several southern towns, including Ghat and Awaynat, the previous week. The advances were the latest in an operation Hifter announced in January 2019 to “eliminate gangs, Islamic State terrorists and criminals” in the south. The spokesman said Hifter's forces now control all Libya's borders except the one to the west.
Alec Luhn and Dominic Nicholls, reported 3 March 2019 in the Telegraph that "Hundreds of mercenaries linked to Russian military intelligence have been backing the rebel commander of Libya's breakaway eastern half, The Telegraph has learned, as Moscow further expands its presence in Africa. The murky private military company Wagner Group has been supporting Khalifa Haftar with 300 personnel in Benghazi and has supplied his Libyan National Army with artillery, tanks, drones and ammunition, a Whitehall source said."
Khalifa Haftar's inability to conclude his offensive on Tripoli incited his Russian ally to strengthen its logistical and military support for him. The Al Watyah [Wattiya / al-Watiyah] air base has in no way come under Russian control, contrary to claims. Russia would not refuse to have a base in the Al Watyah region. On 26 July 2019, Oded Berkowitz, an Israeli intelligence analyst, released new satellite images revealing that an airstrike by the Government of National Accord (LNA) air force destroyed a warplane of the Libyan Air Force (LAF). The images, which were taken on June 13 and June 25, show how a GNA airstrike destroyed a Su-22 warplane of the LAF in al-Watyah airbase in northwestern Libya. Two Ukrainian IL-76D cargo planes were destroyed in a July 2019 airstrike by the Government of National Accord (GNA) on the Al-Jufra Airbase controlled by the Libyan National Army (LNA), according to reports in social media. Russian military blogger Diana Mihailova said that these aircraft weere involved in weapon deliveries to Lbya.
Destabilised and divided during more than a decade of conflict, Libya has been an ideal entry point into Africa for Russia. But Western concerns over Russia’s growing influence in Libya and the neighbouring Sahel region were not translated into any thwarting action on the ground. And so the warnings, by unnamed US officials, of Russia’s naval ambitions in Libya continue to make periodic headlines in US newspapers.
The sudden collapse of the Assad regime in Syria notched up the geostrategic scramble, sending ripples thousands of miles across the Mediterranean Sea, a vital maritime zone connecting the Middle East, Europe and Africa. More than a week after Assad’s ouster in December 2024, in a critical development, the Syria-Libya traffic had expanded to the sea. Russia had begun moving naval assets on the Mediterranean from the Syrian port city of Tartus to Libya, according to US news reports. An unnamed US defence official told CNN that “Moscow has increased pressure on Libyan National Army commander Khalifa Haftar to secure Russia’s claim to a port in Benghazi”.
“The Russians are now more dependent on Libya. This gives Haftar a stronger hand to play. Haftar is always trying to play countries off one another, so he will feel even stronger,” said Tarek Megerisi, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
In the course of an intrigue-packed military career, Haftar has switched sides, worked with rival powers, and managed to save his skin while amassing a fortune. Dubbed “the strongman of Cyrenaica” or eastern Libya, the 81-year-old warlord began his military career in Muammar Gaddafi’s army before deserting to the US, where he spent two decades, gaining US citizenship and clocking up other monikers such as “America’s man”. But over the past few years, Haftar has adroitly turned into “Russia’s man”, using a template set by Assad, his Syrian strongman counterpart.
Haftar, like Assad until his ouster, holds power by relying on close-knit family ties. In the octogenarian Libyan warlord’s case, his lieutenants are his sons, who occupy lucrative posts and top military ranks in eastern Libya. The most prominent among them, Saddam Haftar, is widely rumoured to be the chosen scion of “Clan Haftar”.
“Khalifa Haftar and his sons had long been bolstered, both directly and indirectly, by the Assad regime through a common ideology of authoritarian kleptocracy, networks of illicit businesses that enriched the two regimes, and mutual military aid from Russia,” noted Frederic Wehrey, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The trafficking networks linking clans Haftar and Assad have been documented in numerous reports. They were often physically linked by Cham Wings, a private Syrian airline sanctioned by the EU and US for laundering money and supporting the Assad regime. The plane with Assad regime officials that landed in Benghazi on December 8, just hours after Damascus fell to rebels, belonged to Cham Wings, according to Libyan news reports. Investigated by Frontex, the European border and coast guard agency, for its involvement in human trafficking, Cham Wings was the subject of a February 2024 investigative report by Spanish daily EL PAÍS and Lighthouse Reports, a Dutch journalism collaborative.
In January 2020, Turkey, a NATO member, intervened in Libya to support the Tripoli administration when it came under attack from Haftar’s forces. Aided by a deployment of thousands of anti-Assad Syrian fighters, Turkey managed to negotiate an end to the hostilities. While Ankara and Moscow back opposing Libyan sides, the two powers manage to work together in the oil-rich North African nation, a coexistence founded on economic interests.
Equipment
The forces loyal to Haftar were better equipped than the forces described as "Libyan army," and Haftar forces also included their own air force. Combat helicopters belonging to this private air foce supported the bedraggled Libyan army in the fighting.
By May 2015 the LNA appears to have five MiG-21s supplied by Egypt. The aircraft seen in photographs show that at least some of these aircraft are MiG-21MFs - a type not previously been in service in Libya - and painted in a brown and yellow camouflage scheme close to one used on Egyptian MiG-21s than on Libyan ones. Recently released Google Earth satellite imagery showed five MiG-21s with this distinctive camouflage at Gamal Abdel Nasser Air Base 25 km south of Tobruk on 21 April. Meanwhile, the UAE supplied additional Mi-35 assault helicopters to the LNA in April 2015, according to the English language Libya Herald newspaper.
Another vehicle produced in the UAE and/or Egypt and has been seen in LNA service is the Streit Typhoon 4x4 armoured personnel carriers. The Streit Group's main production facility is in Ras al-Khaimah in the UAE.
In April 2016 UAE donated a number of Armored Personnel Carriers (APC) and military pick-up trucks to the UN backed Libyan government in Torbuk. The number of vehicles sent by the Gulf emirate is unknown, but a picture posted by the Libyan National Army (LNA) shows dozens of new Panthera T-6 light APCs and Toyota Landcruiser pick-up trucks. The Libya Arab News Agency (LANA) reported in 2015 that the LNA had received 900 of the Panthera T-6 vehicles.
Together with Egypt and Jordan, the UAE defied the UN arms embargo on Libya to become one of the most consistent supporters of the LNA since 2012.
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