Libya News and Interests

[anatta]

Thugs and Extremists Join Battle for Tripoli, Complicating Libyan Fray
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/12/w...ya-hifter.html


Fighting this week south of the Tripoli suburb,

A week after an aspiring strongman launched a surprise attack on the Libyan capital, an assortment of criminal gangs and extremists are rushing into the fight against him, raising new questions for the United States and other Western powers that have condemned his attack.

A coalition of militias from around the region has stymied the assault by Gen. Khalifa Hifter, frustrating his predictions of an easy march into the capital, Tripoli, and forcing him to rely on long and circuitous supply lines through the desert to the south.

By Friday his opponents were claiming that his tanks and armored vehicles were running out of fuel.

But an increasingly unsavory cast has joined the coalition against him, including a group closely tied to a militia sanctioned as a terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations; an extremist warlord sanctioned for undermining Libya’s stability; and other militia leaders sanctioned for migrant trafficking.
That mix so alarms Western powers that some may deem General Hifter the lesser evil.

United Nations officials said Friday that the week of fighting on the outskirts of the city had killed over 75 people, including seven civilians, and wounded more than 320. Over 9,000 people have been displaced from their homes or have fled the city, they said.

“Our major worry is increasing airstrikes by both sides and the use of heavy artillery,”
Syed Jaffar Hussain, the United Nations health organization’s representative in Tripoli, told journalists by phone.
“We strongly believe the peak of the crisis is yet to come.”

Libya is one of the world’s largest oil producers, and the head of Libya’s national oil company said Friday that the fighting could “wipe out production.” World oil prices have already surged because of the fighting.

General Hifter, who loosely controls much of eastern Libya, has vowed for years to seize the capital and unite the country, which has been divided since the overthrow of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in the Arab Spring uprising in 2011.

Tripoli is the seat of an almost powerless unity government created by the United Nations and publicly backed by most Western governments, including the United States.

Those governments have so far almost universally condemned General Hifter’s effort to take the capital.

General Hifter has depended heavily on foreign backers — primarily the United Arab Emirates and Egypt
recently on Russia and France, with at least tacit and possibly financial support from Saudi Arabia

Analysts said that chorus of condemnation would make it awkward for the United Arab Emirates and Egypt to intervene overtly to try to help him, as both countries have done in the past.

But on Friday there were signs that the increasingly motley alliance of fighters defending Tripoli might be causing some in the West to hesitate about urging a retreat by the general.

A statement issued Thursday night by the European Union said its member countries

“express their concern at the involvement of terrorist and criminal elements in the fighting, including individuals listed by the U.N. Security Council.”

The power vacuum in Libya since Colonel el-Qaddafi’s ouster has allowed regional, Islamist and criminal militias to carve out patches of territory, including for a time a bastion of the Islamic State.
The chaos has opened Libya’s borders to migrants and militants, periodically crippled its oil production and drained much of its sovereign wealth fund.

Armed groups on both sides of the current fight for Tripoli have extensive records of abusing civilians,
Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

General Hifter’s forces have looted and burned homes, and carried out summary executions. One of his commanders, Mahmoud al-Werfalli, has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.
Other units in the general’s forces are dominated by Saudi-style ultraconservative Islamists who are hostile to democracy.

The forces defending Tripoli, on the other hand, include four major militias that have ruled the city as
a kind of mafia under the ostensible rule of the United Nations-backed government. At least one of them,
- Special Deterrence Brigade, is also composed primarily of Saudi-style hard-line Islamists who oppose democracy and sometimes act as vigilante morality police.

All four of the Tripoli militias have profited by extorting protection money from banks and government ministries, according to United Nations experts and an authoritative study by Wolfram Lacher
of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

The largest is headed by Haitham al-Tajouri, believed to be in his early 30s, who cruises the city in a white G-class Mercedes and posts photos on Facebook of his vacations in Dubai. His habit of wearing labels like Versace or Dolce & Gabbana to the front lines of the battle has become a running joke on Libyan social media. (“Fashionista militia,” one poster called his brigade. “I call dibs on Haitham al-Tajouri’s wardrobe,” said another.)

Those four brigades have been bolstered by the return of more potent militias from the nearby cities of Misurata and Zintan that led the fight to oust Colonel el-Qaddafi in 2011 and have remobilized to stop General Hifter.

They were also joined by Salah Badi, a hard-line Islamist commander from Misurata who had all but receded from public life after he was sanctioned by the United Nations last year for repeatedly undermining Libya’s stability, including in the assault that destroyed the Tripoli International Airport in 2014.

Alongside those forces are notorious migrant traffickers, including Abdul Rahman al-Milad, also sanctioned by the United Nations.

Several hard-line Islamists previously based in the eastern city of Benghazi who had scattered after General Hifter took over the city in 2017 have also returned in Tripoli, talking openly about revenge against him.

One of them, the Benghazi Defense Brigade, had included the militia designated by the United States as a terrorist organization after it played a role in the attack that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. The brigade’s leader, Mustapha al-Sharkasi, has compared the fight against General Hifter to the start of the uprising against Colonel el-Qaddafi in February and March 2011.

“There is unity and the spirit of February is back,

he said in an online video.

Mohamed Bayou, a former adviser to an earlier Islamist-allied coalition of militias that previously dominated Tripoli, said in a television interview that many of the fighters now battling General Hifter did not support the United Nations-backed government either.

“We do not trust them, but today we are in the same trench,” he said, adding that the militias now entering the battle fight only “for their religion, their freedom and their country

The dynamic in Tripoli in some ways resembles what happened when General Hifter first sought to control Benghazi in 2014.

Some hard-line militant groups had been active in Benghazi before he arrived, but General Hifter’s attack on the city prompted other militias to embrace the extremists as partners.

As the extremists grew in prominence, France sent teams of special forces with expertise in urban warfare to help advise him and by 2017 the French had finally helped him take over what was left of Benghazi.

“As happened in Benghazi,” said Mary Fitzgerald, an independent researcher who studies Libya,
“Hifter’s offensive on Tripoli is likely to rally radical elements and then his supporters will say,
‘they are all terrorists.’”

Suliman Ali Zway contributed reporting from Berlin, and Nick Cumming-Bruce from Geneva.

[anatta]

Libya: Detained refugees 'terrified' as clashes near Tripoli rage
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/...172920412.html
Some refugees and migrants say they have been left without food and water, others say they were forced to move weapons.

Some 6,000 people are detained in centres under the control of the Tripoli-based government

ll people are crazy. We're in a bad situation now, but we don't know where we can go," he added. "All the people want to run away from here. We are very stressed now. Already our mind is losing hope."

In Ain Zara detention centre, southeast of Tripoli, a detainee said most of the guards in charge of them had left and food had run out. During another outbreak of conflict in August last year, more than 400 men, women, and children were abandoned in Ain Zara after the Libyans guarding them ran away. ...

[dukkha]

[dukkha]

#Libya- brief recap of #Tripoli theater so far:
*April 4: offensive begins
*5-7: rapid LNA advances, opposing forces launch counter-offensives
*8: offensive stalls, airstrike on Mitiga Airport leads to airstrikes all over
*9-10: back & forth advances by all sides
*11: stalemate

[anatta]

[dukkha]

Shelling kills four in Tripoli as UN debates Libya ceasefire
3 hours ago


TRIPOLI – Sources confirmed to The Address that a family of four (Mother Dr. Suad Diab, Father Ali Al-Tahir Bin Zakri, their son Muhammad Ali Bin Zakri and their daughter Riham Ali Bin Zakri) were killed by mortar shells on their house on the airport road in the capital Tripoli yesterday night, due to indiscriminate shelling during violent clashes between the armed group in the southern suburbs of the capital.

On the other hand, the Libyan National Army Spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed al-Mesmari said that LNA has nothing to do with the ongoing clashes between the militias in Tripoli, and that the army continues to fully secure all the areas under its control such as the entire region of Cyrenaica east of Libya, including Benghazi, Derna, and Tobruk, and large parts of the south and the Libyan west.

[dukkha]

Artillery shell kills four in Libyan summer resort
Source of shell fire – which reportedly killed 4 vacationers – remains ambiguous
Mahmoud Barakat | 05.07.2017
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/arti...-resort/854803


Four people were killed and another 15 injured when an artillery shell struck a summer resort near the Mitiga International Airport in Libyan capital Tripoli, a local medical source said Wednesday. 05.07.2017

[dukkha]

As Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar's forces fight for control of Tripoli, his success depends more on his ability to win over local militias than on the prowess of his troops, analysts say.

Less than two weeks after Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) launched an offensive to seize the Libyan capital -- home to the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) -- a rising death toll and slowed advance indicate his troops are facing resistance by loyalists of the GNA, headed by Haftar's arch-nemesis Fayez al-Sarraj.

Libya has been gripped by political chaos for years, since the 2011 NATO-backed overthrow of dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

And the North African country has also felt the ripple effect of the Gulf diplomatic crisis, and tensions between the UAE and Qatar, Karim Bitar, director of research at the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs, told AFP.

With regional dynamics increasingly at play in Libya, Haftar will have no choice but to woo local militias as he pushes westward, to take Tripoli.

- Muslim Brotherhood -

Haftar's ties to Saudi Arabia and the UAE are critical to his campaign to drive Sarraj from Tripoli and emerge as Libya's uncontested leader, analysts say.

"Haftar's hatred for the Muslim Brotherhood, which maintains some influence in Tripoli and within pockets of the official government, has made him popular with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)," says a report by the Soufan Group published Monday.

"Both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi view the Muslim Brotherhood as a considerable threat to their respective rule and both strongly support strongmen like Egypt's al-Sisi and Libya's Haftar precisely for their anti-Brotherhood stance."

At the start of the offensive launched earlier this month, Haftar's press agency published images of long lines of brand new armoured vehicles in a show of force.

The images came days after Haftar was in Saudi Arabia, where authorities are said to have pledged tens of millions of dollars to his troops, according to a Wall Street Journal report published Friday.

Haftar was also in Cairo on Sunday, shortly after UAE Crown Prince Mohammed ben Zayed held talks with the Egyptian president.

- 'Gangs, jihadists' -

The offensive is likely also a result of the dispute between Saudi Arabia and its allies on the one hand, and Qatar and Turkey on the other.

Doha and Ankara are strong supporters of Islamists in western Libya. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi are not, and Haftar's LNA regularly accuses Doha and Ankara of supplying weapons to its Islamist rivals.

And in the labyrinth of Libyan politics, the LNA may not be able to singlehandedly seize western Libya -- a complicated region home to not only Islamists, but militias and armed groups antagonistic to the Government of National Unity.

The opacity of the Libyan political scene is rooted in the incontrovertible influence of "gangs, criminals, and jihadists switching sides in a complex patchwork of fleeting alliances," according to the Soufan Center.

"Haftar can only succeed in his offensive if he succeeds in turning alliances around and winning the support of certain tribes in the west, where territory is dominated by local forces," said Mathieu Guidere, a professor at the University of Paris and specialist in Arab politics.

"He must draw inspiration from the system set up by Kadhafi in his day to control territory in the long term," Guidere told AFP.

"Otherwise he does not stand a chance of rebuilding the country's territorial unity under one government."

- 'No Libyan Sisi' -

At least 147 people have been killed and more than 600 wounded in 10 days of fighting, according to the World Health Organization.

And some analysts fear the worst is yet to come.

"I think Haftar has major difficulties on the ground in western Libya," said Andreas Krieg, a professor at King's College London.

"He is now bogged down in an atrocious war between his loose band of militias, the Libyan National Army, and those militias that try to defend the Government of National Accord," Krieg told AFP.

"Haftar's bet is risky, but he has benefited from the empathy, open or tacit, of many Arab and western countries," Bitar said.

"It will be difficult for him to become the 'Libyan Sisi' as Libya lacks an army and central institutions as deeply rooted as those of Egypt," he added.

"His power will thus remain shaky."
https://www.yahoo.com/news/haftar-mu...162143218.html


Fighters loyal to Libya's UN-backed unity government hold a position outside Tripoli

[dukkha]

the US Embassy compound (unstaffed) was reportedly broken into last night by breakaway militias from #GNA
who drove off with armored vehicles and other equipment

[dukkha]

Trump praises Haftar in apparent reversal of US policy on Libya
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/...182035115.html


Libyan protesters attend a demonstration to demand an end to the Khalifa Haftar's offensive against
~~
A White House statement said Trump and Haftar spoke by phone on Monday "to discuss ongoing counterterrorism efforts to achieve peace and stability in Libya".

n their phone call, Trump "recognised Field Marshal Haftar's significant role in fighting terrorism and securing Libya's oil resources, and the two discussed a shared vision for Libya's transition to a stable, democratic political system."

It was unclear why the White House waited several days to announce the phone call.

Trump's praise for Haftar was seen in Tripoli as a reversal in US policy on Libya, as earlier this month,
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanded an immediate halt to Haftar's offensive.

People are very angry, thousands of people have come out here on the main streets and squares especially in Tripoli and they are calling on the international community to stop the military aggression by Haftar forces," he said.

At least 2,000 people took part in Friday's protest in Tripoli's Martyrs' Square to protest the push on Tripoli by Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA).

The White House statement notes that he and Haftar spoke on Monday, it could have been Haftar is looking for some sort of approval on a global stage and made a request to have a conversation with the president," she said.

The announcement came a day after both the US and Russia said they could not support a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Libya at this time.

Russia objected to the British-drafted resolution blaming Haftar for the latest flare-up in violence, but the US did not give a reason for its decision

Protesters in Tripoli accused France's President Emmanuel Macron of backing Haftar, but the French embassy in Libya tweeted in Arabic that Paris was "opposed to the attack" on the city.

Haftar enjoys the backing of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which view him as an anchor to restore stability in Libya. But Qatar said an existing UN arms embargo on Libya should be strictly enforced to prevent the commander from receiving arms.

[dukkha]

More than 100 women and nearly 50 children are among the 728 refugees and migrants in the detention centre [Hani Amara/Reuters]
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/...184222138.html

Refugees and migrants trapped in a detention centre on the front line of conflict in Tripoli for weeks say they were shot at indiscriminately on Tuesday by fighters aligned with eastern forces advancing on Libya's capital.

At least 10 people were seriously wounded by gunfire, detainees said.

"Right now they are attacking the centre, shooting more people … They are shooting us directly," an Eritrean man told Al Jazeera through the messaging service WhatsApp.
"We need medical treatment right now because the people with us, their injuries are really a lot."

Four people in the detention centre in Qasr bin Ghashir, 25km south of Tripoli, said the fighters that attacked them were aligned with the Libyan National Army led by renegade commander Khalifa Haftar whose forces attacked Libya's capital on April 4.


Migrace is a Libyan organisation that has been delivering food to refugees and migrants in Qasr bin Ghashir. "The situation is extremely dangerous and access is very difficult," it tweeted
'Bleeding a lot'

Another detainee told Al Jazeera fighters first searched for telephones. "Then they were beating and shooting people.
Attempts by Libyan authorities to move the detainees in Qasr bin Ghashir, after a week of clashes, had failed.

"People are bleeding a lot; now, I need emergency assistance. Please share for us to the world," said another man, using a hidden phone. He said soldiers had already taken mobile phones from many of the people with him.

The refugees and migrants refused to be taken to a detention centre in Zintan, 170km southwest of Tripoli, where they worried they would have little access to international organisations. They said there was a high death rate because of poor conditions and a lack of medical care.


6,000 refugees

After the failed attempt to relocate them, Qasr bin Ghashir's detainees, most of whom have been locked up for months after years with smugglers, said Libyan guards told them they were leaving them on their own. "They didn't leave [us] anything to defend ourselves," one man messaged Al Jazeera on April 13.

There are roughly 6,000 refugees and migrants currently being held in detention centres under the control of the Libyan Department for Combatting Illegal Migration.

More than 2,700 are in areas affected by clashes, according to the UN.

Many of the refugees and migrants currently held in Qasr bin Ghashir have already tried to reach Italy by crossing the Mediterranean Sea, but were caught by the Libyan coastguard, which is funded by the EU under a policy aimed at stopping migration to Europe.

Most of those caught in the Mediterranean are locked up in indefinite detention after they're returned to Libya.

[anatta]

Libya's Presidential Council's Head accuses France of backing up "dictator Haftar"
https://www.libyaobserver.ly/news/li...ictator-haftar
~~

President Donald Trump indicated in a phone call with Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar last week that the U.S. supported an assault on the country’s capital to depose its United Nations-backed government, according to American officials familiar with the matter.

An earlier call from White House National Security Adviser John Bolton also left Haftar with the impression of a U.S. green light for an offensive on Tripoli by his forces, known as the Libyan National Army, according to three diplomats.

Those accounts go beyond a White House statement issued Friday on an April 15 call between Trump and Haftar. The revelation that the U.S. president had tacitly recognized Haftar -- addressed as “field marshal” in the statement -- as a Libyan leader abruptly undermined the country’s internationally-recognized government led by Prime Minister Fayez Al-Sarraj.

Trump’s conversation with Haftar took place after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met with the U.S. president on April 9 and urged him to back Haftar, according to two people familiar with the matter. Trump also spoke with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a Haftar supporter, the day before the White House issued the statement acknowledging the call with Haftar.

The White House statement said that Trump discussed “ongoing counterterrorism efforts” and “recognized Field Marshal Haftar’s significant role in fighting terrorism and securing Libya’s oil resources.”

On Wednesday, after publication of this story, a White House spokesman who declined to be identified said the characterization of the phone calls between Haftar and Trump and Bolton was inaccurate. He didn’t elaborate.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...haftar-tripoli

Clash between Government of National Accord (GNA) and Khalifa Haftar forces on April 20. Photographer: Mahmud Turkia/AFP via Getty Images

[anatta]

my comment:
going all in on Haftar's assault on Tripoli is very risky.
the (various) Tripoli militias are trying to dislodge the Libyan National Army from Tripoli International Airport.

Haftar is Libya's best bet for stability long term, but they are gonna have to fight it all the way into Tripoli
or a stalemate and no unified government

some analysts fear the worst is yet to come.

"I think Haftar has major difficulties on the ground in western Libya," said Andreas Krieg, a professor at King's College London.

"He is now bogged down in an atrocious war between his loose band of militias, the Libyan National Army, and those militias that try to defend the Government of National Accord," Krieg told AFP.
"Haftar's bet is risky, but he has benefited from the empathy, open or tacit, of many Arab and western countries," Bitar said.

[anatta]

Air strike hits Tripoli as eastern Libyan forces send warship to oil port
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-l...KCN1S30KU?il=0
he Libyan National Army (LNA) force of Haftar, which is allied to a parallel government, has repeatedly flown air strikes since starting an offensive three weeks ago to take the capital held by the internationally recognized government.

The Tripoli forces have pushed back the LNA on the ground in some southern suburbs in recent days. A suspected drone could be heard for almost one hour and half followed by at least eight loud explosions, witnesses said. Anti-aircraft fire could be heard.

Reuters was unable to establish with certainty whether an aircraft or drone was behind the strikes though residents reported a humming sound similar to unmanned aircraft.

The air strikes came before the LNA had sent a warship to the eastern Ras Lanuf oil port, after days of unconfirmed rumors of a foreign navy ship having been sighted.

LNA spokesman Ahmed Mismari told reporters his forces had sent the Alkarama patrol vessel to Ras Lanuf in Libya’s key Oil Crescent region as part of a “training mission” to visit the operations room and to secure oil facilities.

The LNA last year had received the patrol vessel, which was previously owned by a firm with a postal address in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to U.N. report monitoring violations of an arms embargo on Libya.

A port engineer said the navy ship’s berthing had not affected oil exports which were going normally. It was not immediately clear whether the ship had left.

[anatta]

the extradition of Hashem Abedi, the brother of the Manchester Arena attacker in 2017 Salman Abedi, has been delayed due to the clashes in Tripoli, BBC reported, citing sources from Libya.

Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha said earlier that a Libyan court agreed to extradite Hashem because he is a British citizen.

Hashem has been detained in Libya since after the attack which took the lives of 22 persons in Ariana Grande's concert in Manchester Arena.

BBC reported Bashagha as saying that a week after the ruling of the court, the capital came under attack by forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar.