Khalifa Haftar sets sights on western Libya
tripoli — After tightening his grip on eastern Libya, military strongman Khalifa Haftar now wants to extend his influence across the west where the UN-backed unity government is based, experts say.
One of the most powerful players in the Libyan conflict, the 75-year-old field marshal heads the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) allied with a rival authority in the east.
He has been bolstered by a string of military victories in eastern parts of the country, which has been wracked by chaos since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Barely a week after seizing key oil export terminals from a rival militia, his forces on Thursday announced the “liberation” of Derna,
the last eastern city beyond his control, from radical militias.
“The LNA has once again proved its capability to operate on multiple fronts and achieve military success,” said Mohamed Eljarh, chief executive of research firm Libya Outlook based in the country’s east.
Haftar’s enemies are ultimately his biggest advantage, he added.
“With their ill-informed and illorganised military adventures, they make it easy for Haftar to justify the expansion of the LNA into the western and southern regions,” Eljarh said.
In recent years, Haftar has repeatedly vowed to “liberate the capital”. But any push westwards is likely to face resistance particularly from armed groups in the western city of Misrata that are among the country’s most powerful and hostile to Haftar.
Haftar’s “triumphalist declarations on his supposed victory against terrorism suggest that he may be carried away by the recapture of Derna and underestimate the road ahead”, said Karim Bitar, an expert at the Institute for International and Strategic Affairs in Paris.
“Even the external powers that support him sometimes feel that Haftar overestimates his strengths and that nothing will be possible without a political rapprochement”.
Haftar served under Gaddafi but later fell from grace when he was captured by Chadian troops during Libya’s 1978-1987 conflict with its neighbour. — AFP