French support of rival general threatens Libya’s UN-backed government

Angry crowds denounced both France and the new Government of National Accord in Tripoli on Friday night, burning French flags and threatening to storm the GNA’s former headquarters at the city's naval base.

Libyan demonstrators protest against French military intervention in the country at Martyrs Square in Tripoli onJuly 22, 2016. Ismail Zitouny/Reuters

PARIS // Revelations that three French special forces operatives killed in Libya last week were working with maverick general Khalifa Haftar has proved a game changer in the country’s fragile politics, threatening the future of the new UN-backed government.

Angry crowds denounced both France and the new Government of National Accord in Tripoli on Friday night, burning French flags and threatening to storm the GNA’s former headquarters at the city naval base – a symbolic threat given that the GNA had vacated the site nearly two weeks before.

The GNA is struggling to control the capital in the country’s west, facing street protests this month over power cuts, food shortages and inflation. The realisation that Gen Haftar has French backing further undermines its credibility, leaving Libyans on all sides questioning whether it should stay in office.

For months western diplomats have been urging Gen Haftar, commander of the powerful army of the Tobruk-based House of Representatives parliament in eastern Libya, to support the GNA as it attempts to unite the country.

But Gen Haftar has refused, with the United Nations envoy to Libya Martin Kobler complaining last week that he had rejected invitations to discuss the issue.

The presence of foreign special forces in Libya has been known for several months, but until now they were thought to be working only with the GNA. In May, the Pentagon confirmed it had units advising local forces battling ISIL, and pro-GNA militias from Misurata have said British special forces were helping them to capture the extremist group’s main base in the town of Sirte.

What is new is that western special forces are also on the ground supporting Gen Haftar.

The general is a polarising figure in Libya. Hated by many in western Libya who accuse him of seeking authoritarian rule, he is supported by many in the east for his campaign to rid Benghazi, Libya’s second city, of militants – some aligned with ISIL, others with a militia called the Shura Council. The Shura Council rejects the Tobruk parliament and is allied with the Libya Dawn militia coalition that controls Tripoli.

He was a former military chief under Muammar Qaddafi before turning against the late dictator and calling for his overthrow from exile in the United States.

In the 2011 revolution, Gen Haftar returned to Libya and commanded some of the rebel units that defeated Qaddafi, aided by Nato air power.

Since the summer of 2014, his collection of army, air force and tribal militia units, Operation Dignity, has been battling rival Libya Dawn and the Shura Council.

Many Libya Dawn units pledged loyalty to the GNA after it arrived in Tripoli in March, but few Operation Dignity units have followed suit.

Until now, France has been an enthusiastic backer of the GNA, and of calls for Gen Haftar to support it.

France first admitted that its units were in the country on Wednesday. Hours later president Francois Hollande said three operatives on a “dangerous reconnaissance mission” had been killed in a helicopter crash there the previous Sunday.

The Elysee Palace has given no further details of the operation, but French newspaper Le Monde has reported that the three men were not soldiers but agents from its elite intelligence service, Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure (DGSE).

On Thursday the Associated Press reported that France had launched air strikes on the militia that claimed to have shot down the helicopter, the Benghazi Defence Brigades, killing at least 14 fighters. The Benghazi Defence Brigades supports the Shura Council and has been battling for several weeks from outside Benghazi to try and break through Gen Haftar’s forces to link up with Shura units in the eastern city.

Although Paris denied the news report, it triggered protests in Tripoli and the western towns of Misurata and Zawiya.

The GNA, which had been silent on the deployment of American and British special forces, said on Thursday it “expresses its deep discontent at the French presence in eastern Libya”.

It certainly appears that Paris has some explaining to do. It is unclear whether French elite units are deployed to help Gen Haftar tackle only ISIL, or whether they also advise him on fighting Shura units. This confusion has heightened fears among Libya Dawn that France is now backing its chief opponent.

France’s actions come amid deep concern in Paris about the need to confront ISIL after a string of attacks on home soil.

Meanwhile, Gen Haftar’s air force commander, Saqr Geroshi, said on Friday that along with 20 French personnel, small units of British and American special forces were also deployed with the Tobruk army at Benghazi’s Benina airport.

With western powers still willing to assist him, Gen Haftar will see no reason to give up command to the GNA, leaving Libya split along an east-west divide.