Insurgency has Libyans scrambling to pick sides

TRIPOLI, Libya — Towns, tribes and armed groups across Libya chose sides yesterday in response to a renegade general’s assault on the country’s Islamist militias and lawmakers.

The general, Khalifa Hifter, has threatened to start something like a coup or a civil war, although it is far from clear he has the power to do so. He has faulted the large Islamist blocs in the transitional Parliament for ineffectiveness and accused them of condoning the militias.

In an apparent concession yesterday aimed at averting conflict, the interim government proposed selecting a new prime minister and suspending Parliament until the next election, which has not been scheduled. But it was unclear how Parliament might respond, and the proposal did not appear to have much chance of defusing the standoff.

Hifter, 65, is a retired army officer who turned against Moammar Gadhafi decades ago and spent years in the United States, where he reportedly collaborated with the CIA on a failed plot to oust Gadhafi. He returned to Libya to join the uprising in 2011.

His new insurgency, begun on Friday, has struck a chord with Libyans weary of their impotent Parliament and fractious militias, especially in the eastern city of Benghazi. Islamist militants there have waged a guerrilla campaign of assassinations and bombings against the police and security forces.

In Benghazi, more than 70 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in fighting since Friday between Hifter’s forces and local militias. And in Tripoli, loosely allied anti-Islamist militiamen also attacked Parliament over the weekend — something that is not uncommon here. Two were killed.

Each side in the battle has claimed to be the legitimate defenders of the weak Libyan state; Hifter grandly calls his band “the Libyan National Army.” Each side has insisted that its opponents are little more than criminal gangs. And disparate factions that have formed out of defected military units, local and tribal militias and ideological groups are lining up on one side or the other.