...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, 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...in renewed festivities southern Derna with fighters from Derna Shura Council, local media reported a medical source from the field hospital in Qubba district.
Meanwhile,
...back at the shootout, Butch started the buffalo stampeding......
sources from Derna reaffirmed that heavy fighting and artillery shelling took place Thursday morning as al-Mukhtar operations room forces tried to advance on the city.
Al-Mukhtar operations room has been tasked by warlord Khalifa Haftar to encircle Derna and conduct attacks on the city's Shura Council fighters.
In the meantime, the front man for the Derna Shura Council, Mohammed al-Mansouri said they were able to foil the attack and to shell locations for Haftar's forces by heavy artillery fire.
"Derna attack has not been given the go-ahead yet. Our forces are well-prepared for it." The front man for the self-styled army in east Libya, Ahmed al-Mismari, said in a presser Wednesday.
He explained that "liberation of Derna" is looming.