Libyan Parliament Pairs Up With Gen. Hifter: Attack Planned on Tripoli

Coup General Called on to 'Liberate Tripoli'

A sign of the growing desperation of the official Libyan parliament, the cabinet has announced a deal with General Khalifa Hifter, who only months ago was trying to depose the pre-election parliament in a military coup, hoping Hifter’s forces can actually install them back in power.

Gen. Hifter managed to successfully recruit much of Libya’s military, such as it is, over to his side, but the capital has since fallen to the Misrata militia, which has installed its own pretender government in power there, and the elected parliament is stuck running out of a hotel in the border town of Tobruk.

The cabinet, and Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni, are pushing Gen. Hifter and the Army, which is really just Hifter’s forces anyhow, to attack and “liberate” Tripoli, returning it to parliamentary control.

Though Hifter has assembled a sizeable force between military defectors and his own irregular forces, he has not proven particularly capable in defeating the major independent militias in Libya, losing time and again in attacks on the Benghazi Shura Council, and it is hard to imagine that the Misrata militia will be any easier to expel from Tripoli.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.