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2021-03-25 Africa North
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Gunmen Kill Warfalli in New Sign of Instability
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[ENGLISH.AAWSAT] Gunmen assassinated Mahmoud al-Werfalli, a member of the Libyan National Army (LNA), who was wanted for war crimes on Wednesday, medics said, underscoring the risks of violent mostly peaceful escalation on the ground that poses the biggest challenge to Libya’s new unity government.
Werfalli was shot from a car outside a hospital in Benghazi alongside two of his bodyguards, military sources said, amid growing friction between rival factions in eastern Libya.
Werfalli was a commander in an elite unit attached to Khalifa Haftar
 ...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, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. 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. Actually, he is, but slowly...
’s LNA that is based in eastern Libya.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has indicted Werfalli twice for the suspected killing of more than 40 captives, including in a 2018 incident in which photographs appeared to show him shooting 10 blindfolded prisoners.
This month he was shown in a widely circulated video raiding a car showroom in Benghazi alongside his uniformed men, smashing up furniture and computers as they brandished weapons.
Friction between rival factions in eastern Libya has been escalating for some time and could further degenerate into a series of retaliatory attacks, said Tarek Megerisi of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
"I think this is going to be the first major challenge for the (Government of National Unity) GNU," he said, according to Rooters.
The GNU was sworn into office this month, taking over from the two rival administrations in east and west that have run Libya for years, as part of a UN-facilitated peace effort.
The eastern administration, backed for years by the LNA, handed over its powers to the GNU on Tuesday at a ceremony in Benghazi.
Besides the challenge of merging Libya’s divided state institutions and preparing for elections in December, the GNU needs also to tackle a dire security situation with power held by myriad factions.
On Wednesday, UN Special Envoy Jan Kubis told the Security Council: "Various gangs continue to operate without hindrance, human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
violations continue with almost total impunity."
Last week, GNU Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibeh said his government would open an investigation after the discovery of bodies in Benghazi.
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Posted by Fred 2021-03-25 00:00||
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File under: Arab Spring
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Posted by Rob Crawford 2021-03-25 07:57||
2021-03-25 07:57||
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