Fighting is once again picking up in Libya today, as coup leader Gen. Khalifa Hifter’s troops launched airstrikes against Benghazi, targeting the bases of an Islamist faction they claim are allied with “terrorists.”
Gen. Hifter, who earlier in this month captured parliament, is in the process of trying to consolidate power, and insists he will continue his operations until the entire nation is “cleansed” of Islamist factions.
In addition to his own self-proclaimed “Libyan National Army,” Hifter commands the loyalty of parts of Libya’s actual military, while parliament’s support seems to be primarily split between the Interior Ministry and Islamist militias.
Even parliament’s allies don’t necessarily get along, however, as fighting was also reporting in Tripoli when an unnamed Islamist militia attacked the Interior Ministry troops guarding a cabinet office. The fighting appears to be related to an ongoing power struggle within parliament, which may be mooted by the reality that parliament was ousted militarily by Hifter anyhow.
Another reason for Americans and especially our president to be exceptionally proud of our foreign interventions. Give that man a Nobel Peace Prize!
hmmm, the last dictator of Libya said similar words as Hifter when going after the Islamist rebels in Benghazi and Mr. Nobel Peace Prize winner used those words to justify not only a no fly zone but a bombing campaign against him. Where is NATO now?
Indeed. How times change.