General Khalifa Belqasim Haftar

The tendency to see military strongmen as a solution may favour General Khalifa Haftar in Libya's power struggles as his Benghazi-based Libya National Army makes progress against jihadist groups and factional rivals with the help of Egypt major arms supplier Russia the United Arab Emirates and France (AC Vol 57 No 16 The scramble for the spoils)...

On the external front Sisi will continue to provide logistical and political support to the Libyan National Army commanded by Khalifa Haftar but direct intervention in Libya is unlikely (AC Vol 57 No 6 Drawing a line in Libya)...

The death of three French Special Forces soldiers in a helicopter crash in Benghazi on 20 July has drawn attention to Paris's support for General Khalifa Haftar's Benghazi-based Libya National Army (LNA)...

Some fight alongside General Khalifa Haftar's anti-Islamist forces in Libya said a senior oppositionist from another party...

This is opposed by many local factions including supporters of the government in Tobruk notably General Khalifa Haftar whose Libyan National Army (LNA) has intensified operations in recent weeks backed by Egypt and Tobruk-based House of Representatives (HoR) acting President Agila Saleh Issa Gwaider who was a signatory to establishing the GNA but is now a leading dissident...

Da'ish is clashing there with the local Petroleum Facilities Guards (PFG) and General Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) which is loyal to the government in Tobruk (AC Vol 56 No 5 More war more talks)...

Recent reports suggest that the head of the Tobruk-based Libyan National Army and leader of the anti- Islamist Operation Dignity in Cyrenaica General Khalifa Haftar has fallen out with both the Tobruk government and other Cyrenaica factions (AC Vol 55 No 11 Enter the General)...

The group even sees the Libya Dawn alliance in Tripoli as 'waging war against Allah's religion' by attempting to institute man-made laws and it describes the House of Representatives' in Tobruk's military chief General Khalifa Haftar as a taghout a corrupt godless tyrant...

The military successes of 'Operation Dignity's' General Khalifa Haftar against the late Mohamed el Zawahi's jihadist Ansar el Sharia militia in Benghazi have inadvertently helped IS (AC Vol 55 No 24 A tale of two cities)...

The alternative is for Khalifa Belqasim Haftar and his Egyptian backers to go for a pure military victory over their enemies in the Islamist-Misurata alliance of Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) and IS (aka Islamic State in Iraq and Syria/Levant: ISIS/ISIL)...

General Khalifa Haftar's 'Operation Dignity' troops are at war with Islamist groups for the control of Cyrenaica in the east...

* Domestic support: Operation Dignity led by General Khalifa Haftar Libyan air force special forces and other army units; Cyrenaican federalist groups including Ibrahim el Jathran's Cyrenaica Political Bureau; some Tebu (Toubou) militia...