Libya's intelligence chief Fays el-Sarraj dies in ambiguous circumstances

Tripoli after bombing by Marshal Khalifa Haftar's forces, May 9, 2020. Mahmud TURKIA / AFP

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In Libya, the head of intelligence, General Abdelkader Touhami, died in ambiguous circumstances as fighting intensifies in the war which has been waging for more than a year now the west represented by Prime Minister Fayez el- Sarraj in Tripoli and the leader of the Libyan National Army, Marshal Khalifa Haftar.

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The versions are still contradictory on the circumstances of this death of the chief of information which took place in Tripoli this Sunday, May 10. After remaining silent, the Government of National Union (GNA) said in a statement that he was "  dead from a heart attack that occurred in his home  ". His family has the same version. He was entitled to a military funeral.

But other versions, including those of the neighbors, question this official version. Several residents of neighborhood 20 Ramadan in Tripoli say he was abducted by a Tripolitan militia the day before.

At the heart of the system

Yet the man seemed to be at the heart of the system. He had been the sponsor of the kidnapping operations of officials accused of being pro-Khalifa Haftar.
He was also the architect of the relationship with Turkey which very actively supports the Fayez el-Sarraj camp.

Last year, the latter had removed him from his duties before rehabilitating him without explanation. Abdelkader Touhami, head of this service since 2017, then threatened to reveal secrets.

For several observers, this death is the consequence of the struggle for influence which takes place between different militias in the west of Libya, a struggle which characterizes, moreover, the entire Libyan crisis.

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  • Libya
  • Fayez el-Sarraj
  • Khalifa Haftar

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