Taking Charge of Libya’s Rebels: An In-Depth Portrait of Colonel Khalifa Haftar

Colonel Khalifa Haftar

BackgroundOn March 14, 2011, Khalifa Haftar, a dissident Libyan Army colonel and long time foe of Colonel Mu’ammar al-Qaddafi, reappeared in Benghazi, the opposition’s supposedly temporary de facto administrative center, to lead Libya’ s chaotic rebellion (al-Jazeera, March 14, 2011). For many years Haftar has been the commander-in-exile of the Libyan National Army (LNA). The LNA is the armed wing of the National Front for the Salvation of Libya (NFSL), a significant Libyan exile entity operating mostly outside of Libya’s borders for several decades. A rebel spokesman in Benghazi told a pan-Arab daily that Colonel Haftar’s arrival from the West on the ground in Libya’s Cyrenaica region was a significant boost to a movement that desperately needed a jolt of energy. “Col. Haftar has in fact returned and is now in eastern Libya. His return has boosted the morale of the young revolutionaries. Haftar has returned and we believe that his officers and soldiers have returned with him. All of them were training during the past six years. They have returned to confront Al-Qadhafi [sic]. This is their time” (al-Sharq al-Awsat, March 15, 2011). Today, as Colonel Haftar finally returns to the battlefields of North Africa with the objective of toppling Qaddafi, his former co-conspirator from Libya’s 1969 coup, he may stand as the best liaison for the United States and allied NATO forces in dealing with Libya’s unruly rebels. ...