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Rival militias prepare for showdown in Tripoli after takeover of parliament Khalifa Hiftar, the ex-general leading a revolt in Libya, spent years in exile in Northern Virginia
(about 7 hours later)
TRIPOLI, Libya — Libya’s political crisis deepened Monday as militias mobilized for a potential showdown with the rival forces of a former Libyan general who had seized control of the national parliament a day earlier. Two weeks before he masterminded an assault on two major Libyan cities, Khalifa Hiftar hosted a dinner to court a potential ally. Hiftar was normally a confident man, a former general who had gone on to spend years in Northern Virginia as an exiled opposition leader, before returning home for the 2011 Libyan revolution.
Hassan Shaaka, the deputy commander of a group of militias in the coastal city of Misurata, told the Libyan television channel al-Nabaa on Monday that his forces had received orders to move on the capital and that they would mobilize Tuesday morning. Other militias lined up to support each of the opposing sides. But that night he seemed unsteady.
The developments raised the possibility of a bloody clash between the rival camps — and possibly even civil war. “Do you think I’m committing suicide?” Hiftar asked his new friend and supporter, businessman Fathallah Bin Ali, as they dined in the eastern city of Benghazi.
The offensive by Khalifa Haftar, the former general, has sparked the most serious violence nationwide since a bloody uprising ended the rule of dictator Moammar Gaddafi in 2011. Today, Hiftar, 71, is leading what may be the most serious challenge to the Libyan government since the overthrow of Moammar Gaddafi in 2011. Attacks by Hiftar’s forces on rival militias in Benghazi and Tripoli in recent days have left more than 70 people dead and dozens more injured. Militiamen loyal to him have overrun parliament.
The confrontation began last week, when forces loyal to Haftar launched strikes against Islamist militias in the eastern city of Benghazi, killing 70 people. Libya may now be sliding into civil war. On Monday, additional militias threw their weight behind Hiftar, including those at an air force base in the far-eastern city of Tobruk, fighters who have occupied swaths of the country’s oil infrastructure, and members of an important Benghazi militia. Meanwhile, fighters from the powerful city-state of Misurata said they would soon move on Tripoli to counter Hiftar’s assault.
On Sunday, two other militias allied with Haftar attacked the General National Congress in the nation’s capital and then declared the institution formally dissolved. Fighting on Tripoli’s outskirts left at least two dead and dozens wounded Sunday night, the Associated Press reported. Hiftar had plotted his operation for months, friends say. His goal was to rid the country of the Islamist militias that he accuses of terrorizing the country, assassinating and kidnapping their political rivals, in the three years since they had all fought on the same side to oust a dictator.
On Monday, other fighters threw their weight behind Haftar, including those at an air force base in the far-eastern city of Tobruk and members of a Benghazi militia. The capital was jittery Monday, with residents bracing for more violence. Libya’s weak central government has failed to integrate the scores of well-armed militias that emerged from the revolution into a unified army and police force. And it has failed to stop the murders and kidnappings that have plagued this oil-rich country. That has led to an explosive situation in the young democracy.
The fighting is the latest chapter in a struggle for power, land and resources that has raged in this oil-rich country since the fall of Gaddafi. The central government has tried unsuccessfully to rein in scores of militias that emerged from the 2011 uprising. “At this point, people are desperate,” said Bilal Bettamer, a 24-year-old Benghazi resident who organized a mass demonstration against the Islamist militias in the city in 2012. He said he was willing to trust Hiftar, “if he proves to be successful, and he proves that it’s not just for the personal glory.”
‘I’m not sure of his goals’ In February he startled the country by going on television and declaring a plan to save the nation. Nothing happened. But Hiftar was fed up with the lawlessness in Libya, Bin Ali said as he recalled their meeting.
Haftar broke with Gaddafi’s regime in the 1980s and went into exile in northern Virginia, living first in Falls Church and then Vienna. He returned to Libya in 2011 to take part in the revolution. “We have to stop it,” Hifter said, according to Bin Ali. Because the interim government and parliament were so ineffectual, “he decided to go for himself to try to fight for [his] rights,” the businessman said.
His allies, many of them former military officers, say Islamist militias have led a campaign of terror, including assassinations, aimed at people who previously held positions in Gaddafi’s regime. Switched sides in the 1980s
“The battle continues until the elimination of terrorism,” Col. Wanis Bu Khameida, the leader of the pro-Haftar Benghazi militia, said in a televised news conference from Benghazi, where many of the attacks have occurred. “The choice is clear: It’s either us or them,” he added. As a young army officer, Hiftar took part in the coup that brought Gaddafi to power in 1969. But Hiftar switched sides in the late 1980s, after he was captured while fighting for Gaddafi’s army in a war in neighboring Chad.
The Islamists say that former officers and bureaucrats from the Gaddafi era should be kept out of the new Libyan security forces and government. He became leader of a rebel group called the Libyan National Army, which he claimed received U.S. assistance. He later sought refuge in the United States. He apparently became a U.S. citizen — he voted in Virginia in elections in 2008 and 2009, records show.
Nouri Abu Sahmein, the head of the General National Congress, said Haftar’s offensive against the elected parliament was “an attempt to wreck the path of democracy,” AP reported. He called on allies from Misurata to come to the legislature’s aid. One member of a prominent Libyan opposition family who knew Hiftar when both were living in Northern Virginia noted that he and his family were comfortable. Hiftar resided in Falls Church until 2007, and later in a five-bedroom home in a quiet neighborhood in Vienna, near the golf course of the Westwood Country Club. He sold the second home in 2010 for $612,000, according to public records.
But leading politicians seemed divided about what to do. Members of the country’s weak, interim cabinet held an emergency meeting Monday and issued a vague open letter to the legislature, suggesting that it vote yet again for a new prime minister — replacing one chosen in May — and eventually be dissolved. “They lived a very good life, and nobody knows what his source for compensation was,” said the acquaintance, who added that Hiftar’s family was not originally wealthy.
A day earlier, some cabinet members appeared to take a different position, saying they would ignore the demands made by Haftar’s forces. When Hiftar returned to Libya in 2011, he was welcomed as a hero and leader in the country’s burgeoning rebel forces.
“The government condemns the expression of political opinion through the use of armed force,” Justice Minister Salah Merghani said in a statement, the AP reported. But some who knew him said he was arrogant and angled for power.
The parliament was scheduled to convene Tuesday. “He was like a little child. He was actually trying to become the chief of staff,” said Jallal Galal, a former spokesman for the rebels. After the rebels chose another former general, Abdul Fattah Younis, to lead them, Hiftar was irate, Galal recalled.
One lawmaker reached by phone, who asked that his name not be published for safety reasons, said the session had been postponed. The lawmaker, part of a political alliance that is closely tied to the militias that attacked the parliament, did not say whether he supported Haftar. Hiftar’s reputation as a prominent opposition figure, his military training in the Soviet Union in the 1970s, and his wartime experience in Chad quickly brought him a wave of support on Libya’s front lines.
“I’m not sure of his goals. He doesn’t seem to have a clear vision of what he’s really doing,” the legislator said. But his decades-long absence from the country also earned him suspicion and rivals. Those early splits in the rebel ranks would form the foundation of today’s power struggle.
Gen. Mokhtar Farnana, speaking for Haftar’s forces, the self-declared Libyan National Army, said on television Sunday that the country’s 60-member constituent assembly, elected this year to draft Libya’s new constitution, would replace parliament, according to the AP. He said the central government would continue to act on an emergency basis. Hiftar’s uprising began late last week, when forces loyal to him launched a wave of strikes against Islamist militias in Benghazi, setting off fierce battles. On Sunday, two other militias, claiming loyalty to Hiftar, attacked the country’s General National Congress in the capital before declaring the institution formally dissolved.
In recent months, Libya’s militias have roughly split into two groups. One includes Islamist militias in Benghazi, joined by allies from Misurata. The other is a diverse group of more-liberal politicians, Gaddafi-era military officers and tribal militias from Tripoli and the western mountains. “The battle continues until the elimination of terrorism,” Col. Wanis Bu Khameida, the leader of the pro-Hiftar Benghazi militia, said in a televised news conference from the city.
Both sets of forces hold positions, or at least allies, in the central government and in parliament, and have received funding and resources from the state. On Monday, the head of Libya’s parliament called on his allied militias based in Misurata to come to the embattled legislature’s assistance. Militias in various parts of the country began to line up on either side, essentially pitting Islamist forces in Benghazi and their allies from Misurata against Gaddafi-era military officers. The latter group was backed by more-liberal politicians and tribal militias from Tripoli and the western mountains.
The two Tripoli militias that stormed the empty parliament on Sunday are known as the Qaqa and the Sawaiq. Both have pledged allegiance to Haftar. In one town in Libya’s Nafusa Mountains, two militias stated their support for opposing sides.
Haftar’s history with U.S. The head of Libya’s General National Congress, Nouri Abu Sahmein, called Hiftar’s offensive an “attempt to wreck the path of democracy” and said he must be stopped, the Associated Press reported.
Haftar is a well-known figure in Libya. As a military officer, he took part in the 1969 coup that brought Gaddafi to power. Haftar later commanded Libyan troops in their war with neighboring Chad but was taken prisoner by Chadian forces. Lawmakers undecided
In 1988, he broke with Gaddafi and established the Libyan National Army, described as a rebel group based in Chad. Haftar asserted publicly that he had U.S. backing. But leading politicians seemed divided about what to do. Members of the country’s weak interim cabinet held an emergency meeting Monday and issued a vague open letter to the legislature, suggesting that it vote yet again for a new prime minister — replacing one chosen this month — and eventually be dissolved.
In a 2011 interview with CNN, Libya’s former ambassador in Washington, Ali Aujali, who supported the anti-Gaddafi uprising that year, declined to confirm whether the CIA had bankrolled the Libyan rebel group established years earlier by Haftar. But he said that “the Americans know him very, very well.” Parliament was scheduled to convene Tuesday. If it does, it would present a significant test of Hiftar’s power.
When The Post asked in 2011 about Haftar’s possible connections to the CIA, a senior intelligence official said the agency’s policy was not to discuss such matters. Some of Hiftar’s allies still appeared undecided Monday on whether they would follow him into an all-out confrontation.
Haftar had struggled unsuccessfully to gain control over Libya’s disparate rebel forces during the early months of the 2011 uprising. After Gaddafi’s ouster, he gradually faded from the Libyan political scene, resurfacing only recently. “I’m not sure of his goals. He doesn’t seem to have a clear vision of what he’s really doing,” said one lawmaker who is part of a political alliance that is closely tied to the militias that attacked the legislature Sunday. He asked that his name not be published for safety reasons.
Some Libyans called Haftar’s assault Sunday a military coup. Hauslohner reported from Moscow and Abdel Kouddous reported from Tripoli. Hassan Morajea in Tripoli, Erin Cunningham and Lara El Gibaly in Cairo, and Julie Tate and Victoria St. Martin in Washington contributed to this report.
But other observers said that description would lend the forces more legitimacy than they deserve.
“It’s silly to say a military coup, because there is no military,” said Jalal el-Gallal, a former member of Libya’s transitional authority.
Anwar Salwan, a powerful local leader from Misurata, about 130 miles east of the capital, said militias from Misurata had started traveling to Tripoli on Sunday night but stopped about 60 miles away. They wanted “to understand more about who is fighting with whom before sending in our forces,” he said.
Hauslohner reported from Moscow. Hassan Morajea in Tripoli, Erin Cunningham and Lara El Gibaly in Cairo, and Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.