Libya News and Interests

[anatta]

March To Tripoli, Or A Third Civil War In Libya: Initial Results – Analysis
https://www.eurasiareview.com/160620...ults-analysis/

[anatta]

Libyan Air Force destroys Russian air defense system used by Haftar's forces
https://www.libyaobserver.ly/news/li...haftars-forces



Joint operations room of western Libya said its forces had destroyed four air defense systems (Pantsir S-1) used by Khalifa Haftar's forces and three ammunition vehicles in airstrikes on last Tuesday.

In a statement on Thursday, the room said their fighter jets had destroyed Sukhoi 22 warplane at Al-Watiya airbase on Wednesday, in addition to howitzer artillery, and a tank and seized some vehicles.

"Our operations will continue and will be intensified until the attacking forces are defeated." The room said.

Meanwhile, a Russian newspaper cited Libyan social media activists' photos showing a Russian Pantsir S-1 air defense system arriving in Al-Jufra airbase via a UAE transportation jet in order to back up Haftar's forces.

The newspaper says the system was seen on a Germany-made truck, saying that only the UAE has this air defense system.

"The UAE supported Haftar with military vehicles, warplanes, and other combat supplies, which means it has provided him with this Russian air defense system." The newspaper added.

A source from Volcano of rage Operation said earlier they had destroyed trucks and ammo going to Gharyan from Al-Jufra, with reports saying the Russian air defense system was among the destroyed items.

[dukkha]

Libya’s two wars: One on the battlefield and one on Facebook
https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-...617-story.html

Fighters loyal to the Libyan internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) are pictured near the front line during clashes against forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar, on June 1 in al-Sawani area, south of the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
~~


In terms of its effect on the battlefield, a drone that fell from the skies one recent morning in an area south of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, was a nonevent. It was unarmed. When it crashed (or was shot down; it’s still unclear), it left behind no casualties.

But by the evening, the drone was the subject of thousands of impassioned Facebook duels dissecting its origin. As well, a video examining its hull became the grist for dozens of reports by satellite news broadcasters across the region.

The aftermath of the incident was just another sign that in Libya there are two concurrent wars: One involves bullets and bombs fired between the self-styled Libyan National Army and militiamen allied with the United Nations-recognized Government of National Accord (or the GNA) in Tripoli’s outskirts.

The other war is no less intense, but virtual; its ordnance is a swarm of disinformation, gruesome videos and pictures peddled by “keyboard warriors” or “digital heroes,” as Libyans sometimes dub online partisans.

In the realm of toxic social media in times of conflict, Libya stands tall. Facebook, especially, is the primary communication mode for more than two-thirds of the country, a riven nation of 6.5 million people divided in loyalties to two governments (or three, depending on how you count), an array of tribes and an ever-shifting kaleidoscope of armed factions.

“Everyone has Facebook and uses it for business,” said a Libyan social media researcher, who asked to withhold their name to avoid repercussions. “Politicians, officials, fighters… You ask them what’s your e-mail and they’ll give you their Facebook username.”

With virtually no independent media available, the rapid swarm of posts from users in and out of Libya is the main source of mass communication. But it’s also a weapon marshaled in support of developments on the physical battlefield.

“Both sides use it for propaganda,” said Oded Berkowitz, a deputy chief intelligence officer at Max Security and an expert in Libyan social media. “And with it a disinformation campaign focusing on accusing the other side of excessive collateral damage or intentional killing of civilians, and framing the enemy as serving foreign interests or having mercenaries and foreign fighters fight in their ranks.

On April 4, Khalifa Haftar, a general in the mold of former Libyan dictator Col. Moammar Kadafi, commanded his Libyan National Army forces to move on what he called Islamist militias controlling what had become an illegitimate government holding Tripoli hostage.

Legions of his supporters mobilized online as well.

That day, they deluged Facebook with polished, graphics-laden videos sporting video of armored vehicles rumbling toward Tripoli. Pro-Haftar influencers reassured their followers that the fighters, with the help of collaborators in the capital, would enter with the least amount of collateral damage.

Others trumpeted every advance posted by the various armed groups; even some that didn’t happen. (It later earned them an admonishment that fake, so-called “Facebook control” of areas hurt their cause.)

Saudi Arabian and Emirati allies of Haftar joined the assault, especially on Twitter. Haftar receives support from both countries, along with Egypt, France and Russia.

Meanwhile, the government and factions fighting alongside mounted a counter-offensive, dubbed Operation Volcano of Anger, complete with its own Facebook page.

The day the drone descended, that page posted pictures to its more than 168,000 followers. The images depicted a white-colored fuselage sporting two Emirates flag decals and a sign saying, “Made in the UAE.”

Government supporters shared the photos as well as an activist-shot video of the drone. Soon after, the first of the pro-GNA channels, Libya Al-Ahrar, also shared the images and posted a story about the video. It was picked up by Al-Jazeera Mubasher, the live Arabic-language channel of the Qatari news network, which broadcast its own video. (Qatar and Turkey both support the GNA.)

Pro-Haftar activists shot back, pointing out that the colors on one of the flags were reversed. The War Information Division, the official page of the Libyan National Army’s operations, dismissed the story as “lies and fabrication,” and insisted that the drone belonged to the GNA and had been shot down by Haftar’s forces the previous day. Saudi and Emirati news channels ran with that version of the story, using it as proof of Turkey and Qatar’s perfidy.

All that happened within an hour of the original post.
Facebook removes fake accounts tied to Indian political parties, Pakistan’s military »

Aside from the speed with which such stories spread, Facebook also reflects the chaotic, occasionally surreal brand of fighting seen in Libya.

Clips of gunmen doing doughnuts with captured tanks; SAM anti-aircraft trucks firing their missiles horizontally at ground targets; a video featuring visibly intoxicated pro-Haftar fighters lobbing mortars in a civilian neighborhood; images of Haitham Tajouri, a one-time bus driver turned millionaire commander of a powerful faction dressed in Versace and Dolce & Gabbana for a trip to the battlefield: Such happenings are standard fare on Libyan social media.

And very little of what happens on the battlefield remains hidden.

When a presumably secret shipment of Turkish armored carriers arrived in Tripoli’s harbor earlier this month (with Turkish army trainers in tow), images of the vehicles rolling off the ship appeared on Facebook. Their counterparts in the Libyan National Army feted the arrival of their own Jordanian-made armored vehicles.

Also on display is the casual viciousness with which gunmen treat their enemies. A recent investigation by the Arabic-language arm of the British Broadcasting Corp. uncovered pictures and videos taken by members of Haftar’s elite Al-Saiqa Brigade posing with the mutilated corpses of their Islamist adversaries.

A Facebook spokesperson said the company was “working hard to fight abuse on our services, particularly in conflict zones like Libya where Facebook can be used to incite violence and spread hate, terrorist and extremist content and graphic material.”

The spokesperson added that the company has “global safety and security teams,” including some 15,000 content reviewers.

“These content review teams are located in over 20 sites around the world - including sites in North Africa - working round the clock to review reported content.”
Facebook was used in Myanmar to stoke ethnic violence. It could’ve done more to stop it, study says »

The toxicity is reflected on Libyan television channels. One example is Mohammad Emtallel, a newscaster aligned with Haftar who in April spent part of his show cheering and laughing to video of rockets smashing into Tripoli’s residential neighborhoods.

Then there is Noman Benotman. A former Haftar supporter, he’s now a turbo-tongued defender of the Tripoli government, with a Trumpian knack for choosing derisive nicknames.

He has hundreds of thousands of followers on Facebook, and is also a regular on Libya Al-Ahrar, where he engages in hours-long exegeses railing against Haftar and his allies. (One of his marathon sessions was recently interrupted when hackers hijacked the broadcast with the defiant-looking visage of the general.

“What [Benotman] is doing is coming up with terms that are sowing hate and division, and you’re having people here from this side responding to him in kind,” said Mohammad Eljarh, co-founder of Libya Outlook for Research and Consulting, a think tank based in Libya’s east, where Haftar is dominant. “It’s creating really problematic dynamics. People say they’re watching them for fun, but this is not something to be laughing about.”

Both Haftar and the Tripoli government have hired Washington, D.C., lobbyists to further their cause in Washington’s power circles and attract favorable media coverage, according to foreign agent registration documents released by the U.S. Justice Department.

Still, the main objective of the various posts was less about forging a narrative than creating confusion, said the Libyan social media researcher who asked to remain anonymous.

The drone story is an example of that. By day’s end, there was already a Photoshopped image of a Turkish flag online instead of that of the Emirates on the fuselage, and multiple explanations as to how it had crashed south of Tripoli.

“It’s not about discrediting, but putting as many versions out there as possible so people will get overwhelmed,” said the Libyan researcher. “If you create enough confusion, no one knows what to believe.”

[dukkha]

American Missiles Found in Libyan Rebel Compound
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/28/w...-missiles.html



he missiles were discovered after forces loyal to the United Nations-backed national unity government carried out a successful surprise attack Wednesday on Gheryan, a mountain redoubt 40 miles south of Tripoli. Gheryan was the headquarters for General Hifter’s military campaign to seize control of Tripoli, which his forces have been fighting since April.

After capturing Gheryan, pro-government fighters uncovered Chinese-made attack drones and the stack of four American-made Javelin missiles at an abandoned base. Known in the military as “fire and forget” weapons, the Javelins are guided by infrared technology and are capable of destroying all currently fielded main battle tanks.

Markings on the missile crates identify their joint manufacturer, the arms giants Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, and a contract number that corresponds with a $115 million order for Javelin missiles that was placed by the United Arab Emirates and Oman in 2008.

mirati warplanes carried out airstrikes in 2017 that helped General Hifter win control of Benghazi, after years of battle against Islamist militias that leveled entire swaths of the eastern city.

When General Hifter started his assault on Tripoli on April 4, in the face of much international opposition, the Emiratis continued to support him. They supplied a Russian-made surface-to-air missile system, Chinese-made Wing Loong combat drones and Emirati drones, said a senior Western official with knowledge of the arms trade.

Jordan, another American ally to side with General Hifter, sent a Jordanian-made anti-tank system known as Nashshab, the official said.

Turkey, a regional rival of the United Arab Emirates, intervened on the other side of the fight, sending combat drones and armored vehicles to help the United Nations-backed government in Tripoli.

The United States supports the Tripoli government, which it helped install. However, President Trump appeared to endorse General Hifter and his military drive after the two men spoke by telephone in April, hailing his “significant role in fighting terrorism.”

Other American officials later rowed back that position by stressing American support for the United Nations-led political process.

The foreign interventions, which flout a United Nations embargo on all arms sales to Libya, highlight how the conflict set off by the ouster of Libya’s longtime dictator, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, in 2011 has partly devolved into a proxy conflict between rival regional powers.

Until now, though, those foreign sponsors have avoided using restricted American military technology.

“The U.A.E. has been supplying advanced weapons to the Libyan theater for years,” said Oded Berkowitz, an Israeli security analyst who specializes in the Libyan conflict. “But now they seem to be throwing everything at it. And some of these weapons, like the Javelins, are real game changers.”

The controversy over the Javelin missiles suggests that the Emiratis are flexing their military muscle with little regard for rules set by their American allies, said Frederic Wehrey, a scholar at the Carnegie Institute and author of a recent book on Libya.

“This is the new era we’re in,” he said.

The Emiratis have used restricted American weapons in Libya before. In 2014, American officials were alarmed when Emirati warplanes bombed targets in western Libya with American munitions, said Deborah Jones, then the United States ambassador to Libya.

Criticism of the Emirati actions from the Obama administration made Prince Mohammed “furious,” recalled Ms. Jones, who was sent to Abu Dhabi to meet with him.

President Trump, though, has had a much closer relationship with his Emirati and Saudi allies in the Persian Gulf, a closeness that has left some wondering if it has emboldened the Emiratis in Libya.

“When the Emiratis bombed Tripoli in 2014 there was alarm in the Pentagon and an effort to warn them off,” Mr. Wehrey said. “But in the current climate, you have to wonder if they perceive such a cost.”

[Bill]

You got the money, there will be someone willing to sell.........

[dukkha]

You got the money, there will be someone willing to sell.........

it's now a free for all with international factions selling weapons & backing factions in Libya..FUBAR...

[Bill]

You know we are certainly in the game.. Like the yuge deals w/ saudi arabia~the murder etc... BIG$$$$$$$$

[dukkha]

You know we are certainly in the game.. Like the yuge deals w/ saudi arabia~the murder etc... BIG$$$$$$$$

we are not involved in Libya -not even by proxy..we bombed Sirte to kill ISIS as an airpower for the Misrata Brigades
and Trump briefly backed Haftar - but they are over and done

Everyone else including the Gulf states, Egypt and Russia and Turkey though have a stake

[Bill]

we are not involved in Libya -not even by proxy..we bombed Sirte to kill ISIS as an airpower for the Misrata Brigades
and Trump briefly backed Haftar - but they are over and done

Everyone else including the Gulf states, Egypt and Russia and Turkey though have a stake

Involved in selling arms..

[Bill]

What is Turkey going to do??


Turkey threatens Libyan strongman Haftar as six citizens detained

The Turkish foreign ministry said the detention of its citizens amounted to "banditry and piracy".

Gen Haftar's forces said on Friday they would attack Turkish targets over Turkish support for the internationally recognised Libyan government.

They also claimed they had destroyed a Turkish drone at a Tripoli airbase.

Libya has been torn by violence and division since long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi was deposed and killed in 2011.

more @ source

[Bill]

Why block something like this???

U.S. Blocks UN Security Council Condemnation of Libya Migrant Camp Attack

The United States has blocked the United Nations Security Council from issuing a statement condemning the airstrike on a migrant detention center in Libya which left 44 people dead, according to a report in Germany. Deutsche Welle reports that British representations circulated a statement that condemned the air strike and called for a ceasefire when the council met Wednesday. However, the U.S. reportedly prevented the 15-member Security Council from issuing a statement. The U.S. State Department had earlier condemned the air strike, but didn't go as far as to call for a ceasefire. The air strike hit a detention center in Tripoli on Wednesday. Libya's UN-backed government in Tripoli blamed the attack on the insurgent Libyan National Army.

[anatta]

Why block something like this???

U.S. Blocks UN Security Council Condemnation of Libya Migrant Camp Attack

[SIZE=3]The United States has blocked the United Nations Security Council from issuing a statement condemning the airstrike on a migrant detention center in Libya which left 44 people dead, according to a report in Germany.

because the UN backs and formed the GNA of Tripoli. They are Islamists - and Libya does have ISIS type characters in some of the militias. Trump and Haftar had a phone convo and Trump backed him right away..until he stalled

If Only Hiftar/Haftar/had waited. But he had a mass of troops and they wern't going to wait.
He ran into the buzz saw of the Misrata Brigades who threw ISIS out of Sirte (south of Tripoli advance)

Truth be told I don't think anyone from Tripoli/ Sirte / Misrata are gonna put up with a Bengazi based general Hiftar running things in Tripoli

[anatta]

TRIPOLI, Libya — Thousands of African migrants who have endured deprivation and even torture in a bid to reach Europe are now facing even greater peril, trapped in the middle of the renewed warfare that has gripped this capital city for three months.

More than 10,000 migrants who have set out across the Mediterranean over the past year have been returned to Libyan detention centers after stringent European anti-migration policies took effect, aid officials say, while many others have been blocked from even setting sail.

On Tuesday night, an airstrike shattered a detention camp in a Tripoli enclave, killing at least 53 migrants. The strike, which also left more than 130 wounded at the Tajoura detention facility, inflicted the most civilian casualties in a single day since combat erupted between a renegade Libyan commander, Khalifa Hifter, and militias aligned with the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli.

t was the latest horror, perhaps among the worst, visited upon tens of thousands of mostly sub-Saharan African migrants and refugees who have streamed into Libya in recent years. Many have escaped conflicts, political repression, ethnic pogroms and poverty in their homelands only to be caught up in someone else’s war.

Thousands remain in detention centers run by Libyan militias or in homes near front-line fighting, exposed to airstrikes and mortar and rocket fire. Indiscriminate gunfire has wounded some of them, while the militias have tried to forcibly recruit young migrants, according to migrants and humanitarian officials. Food is running short inside detention centers, and some migrants locked inside have died by suicide, aid workers said.

On Friday, there were at least 359 detainees still in the pulverized Tajoura detention center, which housed 600 migrants and refugees before the attack, Doctors Without Borders spokeswoman Karin Ekholm said in an email.

U.N. officials say more than 6,000 migrants and refugees remain in the country’s 34 detention centers, including 3,300 held in facilities in and around Tripoli. Some centers are run by militias involved in human smuggling, and migrants in interviews have described torture and slavery-like conditions. Other migrants are in schools that have become displacement centers, dependent on charities for survival. None of the detention centers have been evacuated after the Tajoura tragedy, Ekholm said.

Now, the calls to change Europe’s anti-migration policies have grown louder, with senior U.N. officials describing Tuesday’s attack as a possible war crime and demanding an investigation.

E.U. spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said the union’s assistance to the Libyan coast guard is designed to prevent migrants from drowning at sea. “We are not turning a blind eye to the situation of migrants in Libya,” Kocijancic said.

As the war continues, and summer brings calmer waters on the Mediterranean, aid agencies and Libyan coast guard officials expect more migrants to try to escape the fighting.

The migrants’ deteriorating plight has sparked concerns that more will risk their lives to cross the Mediterranean, often in rickety, unsafe vessels. The death rate so far this year among migrants trying to reach Italy or Malta, the closest European nations to Libya, by sea is nearly twice that of the same period in 2018, with 1 in 10 migrants perishing, according to the International Organization for Migration.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.655d86523777

[anatta]

[cancel2 2022]

TRIPOLI, Libya — Thousands of African migrants who have endured deprivation and even torture in a bid to reach Europe are now facing even greater peril, trapped in the middle of the renewed warfare that has gripped this capital city for three months.

More than 10,000 migrants who have set out across the Mediterranean over the past year have been returned to Libyan detention centers after stringent European anti-migration policies took effect, aid officials say, while many others have been blocked from even setting sail.

On Tuesday night, an airstrike shattered a detention camp in a Tripoli enclave, killing at least 53 migrants. The strike, which also left more than 130 wounded at the Tajoura detention facility, inflicted the most civilian casualties in a single day since combat erupted between a renegade Libyan commander, Khalifa Hifter, and militias aligned with the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli.

t was the latest horror, perhaps among the worst, visited upon tens of thousands of mostly sub-Saharan African migrants and refugees who have streamed into Libya in recent years. Many have escaped conflicts, political repression, ethnic pogroms and poverty in their homelands only to be caught up in someone else’s war.

Thousands remain in detention centers run by Libyan militias or in homes near front-line fighting, exposed to airstrikes and mortar and rocket fire. Indiscriminate gunfire has wounded some of them, while the militias have tried to forcibly recruit young migrants, according to migrants and humanitarian officials. Food is running short inside detention centers, and some migrants locked inside have died by suicide, aid workers said.

On Friday, there were at least 359 detainees still in the pulverized Tajoura detention center, which housed 600 migrants and refugees before the attack, Doctors Without Borders spokeswoman Karin Ekholm said in an email.

U.N. officials say more than 6,000 migrants and refugees remain in the country’s 34 detention centers, including 3,300 held in facilities in and around Tripoli. Some centers are run by militias involved in human smuggling, and migrants in interviews have described torture and slavery-like conditions. Other migrants are in schools that have become displacement centers, dependent on charities for survival. None of the detention centers have been evacuated after the Tajoura tragedy, Ekholm said.

Now, the calls to change Europe’s anti-migration policies have grown louder, with senior U.N. officials describing Tuesday’s attack as a possible war crime and demanding an investigation.

E.U. spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said the union’s assistance to the Libyan coast guard is designed to prevent migrants from drowning at sea. “We are not turning a blind eye to the situation of migrants in Libya,” Kocijancic said.

As the war continues, and summer brings calmer waters on the Mediterranean, aid agencies and Libyan coast guard officials expect more migrants to try to escape the fighting.

The migrants’ deteriorating plight has sparked concerns that more will risk their lives to cross the Mediterranean, often in rickety, unsafe vessels. The death rate so far this year among migrants trying to reach Italy or Malta, the closest European nations to Libya, by sea is nearly twice that of the same period in 2018, with 1 in 10 migrants perishing, according to the International Organization for Migration.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.655d86523777

Who did that, was it Hafter's forces?