Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com – 2014-05-21 01:58:59
Libyan Military Splinters as Rivals Prepare for Civil War
Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com
(May 19, 2014) — The weekend takeover of Libya’s parliament by the leader of the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army and it’s head Gen. Khalifa Hifter has made an unstable situation much worse, and has the nation’s countless armed factions picking sides for what is shaping up to be a full-scale civil war.
Though Gen. Hifter’s Army is itself just another “irregular force,” parts of Libya’s actual military are rushing to his side, including the Special Forces, which endorsed Hifter’s “Operation Dignity” against Islamist MPs.
Libya’s Army Chief of Staff, which remains loyal to the government, appears to know it can’t win the fight alone, and has issued a call for the Islamist dominated militias to come to Tripoli to fight by their side to restore the power of Prime Minister Malteeq, whose government was in power for only a few hours before the coup.
Malteeq’s power bloc was overwhelmingly Islamist MPs, which likely played a role in Hifter’s allegation of an Islamist takeover of parliament. That the military is now putting out an SOS call to Islamist fighters to save his government is likely to add to the division between Hifter’s anti-Islamist coup forces and the remaining loyalists.
US Moves More Troops, Planes
To Sicily for Possible Libya Mission
Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com
(May 19, 2014) — US officials have reported an additional 60 US Marines and four Osprey aircraft deployed to Sigonella, Sicily, to join the force readying for deployment across the Mediterranean to Libya to evacuate US Embassy personnel.
Officials say the troops are on “heightened alert” at the base since yesterday’s attempted coup in Tripoli. Fighters on both sides in Libya are gearing up for a potential civil war.
The US had sent most of the force, some 200 marines, to Sicily late last week, days before the coup happened. At the time they cited non-specific “unrest” as the region for the move.
The troops are all part of a “Crisis Response” task force created after the 2012 attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi. The troops are normally stationed elsewhere in Europe, and only move to Sicily when something is happening in Libya or, in this case, a few days beforehand.
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US Sends Troops to Sicily and
CIA-Backed Strongman Stages Libya Coup
Anti-War.com
Is it just a coincidence that Gen. Khalifa Hifter launched his Libyan coup just four days after the US sent a “crisis response team” to Sicily at the State Department’s request.
Is it just a coincidence Gen. Hifter lived in Washington, D.C. for decades, a few convenient miles from the CIA’s Langley headquarters, where his US-backed exile group was based?
Is it just a coincidence that this is all playing out as the US backs coups from Ukraine to Egypt to Venezuela?
We report — you decide. But you can’t decide unless you have the information the “mainstream” media isn’t reporting. That’s why Antiwar.com is such an invaluable resource – and why you need to donate now so that we can continue to bring you the underreported news the US State Department doesn’t want you to know about.
