[AnNahar] A former Libyan air force chief was rubbed out overnight in the country's violence-ridden second city of Benghazi, medical and army sources said on Thursday."Unidentified gunnies killed former air force chief of staff general Ahmed Habib al-Mesmari in the Al-Hadaek district" in the city center, a senior air base officer in Benghazi told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
Mesmari stood down as air force chief of staff in April after attending a meeting with renegade general Khalifa Haftar
... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
whom the then authorities in Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
accused of staging a coup d'etat.
A hospital source in Benghazi said he had been "hit by several bullets".
Since dictator Muammar Qadaffy
...who single-handedly turned a moderately prosperous kingdom into a dictator's fantasyland and was then murdered by his indignant subjects 42 years later...
's regime was ousted in 2011, dozens of military figures have been assassinated in Benghazi.
For several months, the city has seen festivities between army forces loyal to Haftar and Islamist militias, including Ansar al-Sharia
...a Salafist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends. There are groups of the same name in Libyaand Yemen, with the Libyan versions currently most active. Tunisia's Shabaab al-Tawhid started out an Ansar al-Sharia and changed its name in early 2014. It still uses the old name now and then, probably because the stationery's not all used up and the web site hasn't expired yet...
jihadists.
The Libyan authorities and the United States consider Ansar al-Sharia to be a "terrorist" group.
On May 16, Haftar's forces launched an offensive against the jihadists in Benghazi, but his campaign has not been a success.
On Wednesday, the Islamists launched another assault on Benghazi airport, Haftar's final redoubt.
There has been almost daily fighting between Haftar's forces and the militias, which now control nearly all of Benghazi, the cradle of the 2011 uprising.