Libyan Govt Restores Ex-General to Key Army Post

Aims to Bring General's Private Army Onto Their Side

Ousted from his post decades ago by the Gadhafi government, Gen. Khalifa Hifter has gone from rebel general, to CIA-backed rebel funder, to coup-leader with a private army, and is now back to a top general in Libya.

That’s the decision made by the Libyan “government,” which has been operating in exile for months and has no control over the capital or any major cities, which has brought Gen. Hifter on board in the hopes it will restore them to power.

In practice, they didn’t have a lot of alternatives, with what little was left of the Libyan military joining Hifter’s private army, and every city under the control of other factions that don’t support either them or Hifter.

In the long run, it could be risky, however, as Gen. Hifter sought to oust the previous parliament for being “too Islamist,” and a lot of his overseas support seems to be from nations, like Egypt, with an eye toward exporting the military junta form of government.

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.