Libya seeks arrest of two men accused of 2017 massacre

▶ Warrants have been issued for a terroris and a militia leader over the killing of 141 soldiers and civilians

Libyan officials have taken steps to strengthen state control of its oil wealth as arrest warrants were issued for terrorist Abdulhakim Belhaj and his former ally, militia leader Ibrahim Jahdran.

The two are accused by the attorney general of being involved in the 2017 massacre of 141 soldiers and civilians loyal to Libyan National Army leader Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar at the Tamenhint airbase.

They also face charges of helping to blockade some of Libya’s largest oil terminals. Four other Libyans were named in warrants, as were 31 Sudanese and Chadian rebels who were said to have committed murder and kidnappings in southern Libya.

Mr Belhaj, who was put on sanctions lists by UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt in 2017, rejected the accusations and said it was an attempt to remove him from the political scene.

He is a former commander of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a faction linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, which sought to overthrow long-time ruler Muammar Qaddafi and was once proscribed by the US and UK.

The group continuously rejected claims that it was linked to Al Qaeda. Many of its commanders, including Mr Belhaj, fought alongside Osama bin Laden against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

The UK was forced to apologise to him and his wife last year because of its involvement after their 2004 rendition by US intelligence officers from Thailand to Libya.

Mr Belhaj would later be among those who stormed Tripoli during the 2011 revolution that ousted Qaddafi.

Now based in Turkey, he leads the conservative-leaning Watan party.

Mr Jahdran’s forces held Libya’s central oil crescent from 2013 until 2016.

It is a region that provides a large part of the country’s output of about 1.1 million barrels a day.

Dissatisfied with the central government, he cost Libya billions of dollars when he closed the oilfields and tried to independently export.

Mr Jahdran’s fighters were eventually pushed out by the Libyan National Army but attacked the same area again last summer.

The US and UN sanctioned him afterwards.

Field Marshal Haftar’s forces do not recognise the attorney general in Tripoli and are supported by a rival administration in eastern Libya, but they welcomed the arrest warrants for two of their main rivals.

The troops have pursued Mr Jahdran’s fighters and another group, the Benghazi Defence Brigades, in recent weeks. It is the farthest Field Marshal Haftar’s forces have pushed west.

“We are no longer going to wait for these militias to attack the oilfields,” a spokesman for the Libyan National Army said. “We are going to track and hit those militias wherever they are.”

Libya’s south is rife with rebel groups from Sudan and Chad, who are able to move around the sparsely populated areas with relative ease amid the security vacuum.

It is common for the country’s factions to accuse each other of hiring Sub-Saharan mercenaries.

Its embattled oil industry remains a vital economic lifeline for the country, but production often plunges when groups take over its plants.

Last month disaffected locals in the neglected south stormed and closed its largest oilfield in protest against their living conditions.