Mohamed Fathallah - Al Jazeera Net

The military and political scene in Libya changed after the retired Major General Khalifa Haftar announced a military operation aimed at controlling the Libyan capital, Tripoli, which he called "the clear conquest."

The repercussions of this military operation that began on April 4, 2019, were not confined to the political scene already confused in Libya, nor to the complex military situation, but also included the social scene, to put the Libyan fabric, which suffers from successive wars since 2011, to the test. .

The operation sparked sharp differences within the Libyan society, east and west, its cities and tribes, and caused a loss of trust between the components of the people together, as a result of an attack that started from a specific geographical area that attacked others away from about a thousand kilometers away.

The militants who fight alongside Haftar can be described as Libyans as a tribal mix of East, West, and South, asymmetric militias, most of whom are civilians, including gangs that have been involved in crime, and others who belong to religious movements such as Salafism or what is known as the “Salafist entrance” and some of the military.

Several tribes successively Haftar to topple the National Accord government in Tripoli (Reuters)

Gaddafi's regime grievances
Most of the forces currently fighting with Haftar come from the societies that stood against the February 2011 revolution and consider it a defeat, and talk here about the areas that surround the capital, east, west and south.

What remains of the Gaddafi Brigades is now a spearhead in the fight with Haftar, who exploited the difficult living conditions that Libya is going through as a result of the institutional division between East and West, and made understandings with the cities and regions that were lost in 2011, after standing with the regime of the late Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, And he forged alliances with men of the previous era, both inside and outside Libya, who were excluded from the scene after February 2011.

Tarhuna, the regions of Rashfana, the cities of Sorman and Al-Ujailat, part of the Sabratha Brigades, and part of the Zintan fighters, Bani Walid, al-Jameel, al-Mashashiyya, al-Asan, al-Asaba, and Zalatan, are considered the backbone of the elements of the former regime fighting alongside Haftar.

The 106th Brigade, the Tariq bin Ziyad Brigade, the Special Forces (Saiqa) brigades in Benghazi, and armed groups from Ijdabiya, Tobruk, and al-Bayda are the nucleus of Haftar militants from the eastern region, who led their battles in Benghazi (2014), Derna (2018) and the South (2019) and brought them to the fringes of Tripoli .

Khalifa Hifter's forces receive external military support as well as the support of several tribes in his battle in Tripoli (Reuters)

Changing alliances
Haftar also joined some of the tribesmen in the south, such as Al-Magarhah, Qadakhfa, and the children of Solomon, and a small part of the Tabu and some of the Tuareg tribes. They are the ones responsible for securing the oil installations and fields controlled by Haftar in the south, in addition to providing them with supplies from east to west, considering that this military line It passes through their areas.

Before the Haftar attack on Tripoli, the armed groups in the western region were living in a state of ongoing conflict with each other, amounting to direct military confrontations, such as those that occurred in Tripoli between the Misrata brigades with the Tripoli military groups in 2015, and the hostility between the Zintan and Misrata fighters against the background of the lineups that resulted On the “Dawn Libya” operation, and also the August 2018 clashes between the Brigades of Tarhuna (7th Brigade) and the Al-Samoud Brigade from Misrata led by Salah Badi, against the Brigades from Tripoli (Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigade) led by Haitham al-Tajouri and the “Special Deterrence” forces led by Abd al-Raouf The deterrence and the deterrence of Abu Salim battalion Agneoh Alkkla.

However, the attack on Tripoli pushed the enemies of yesterday and the allies of the February 17 revolution in Misurata and Zintan to the Union again, and they were joined by formations and battalions from Zliten, Zawiya, Zuwara and the Amazigh cities of Mount Nafusa, and fighters from Benghazi and some of the cities of the eastern region who were displaced in Tripoli, but this time against Haftar, who represents The military project in Libya, supported regionally and internationally.