Alyssa Sims & Peter Bergen
2011-2018: Revolution Turns to Civil War
Several leaders among the various rebel factions had begun to jockey for control over the direction of the revolution before Gaddafi’s death, so when the regime. finally collapsed, the stage was set for bitter disagreements between rebel camps.
The artillery and other weapons that had been funneled by Western and Arab states to the rebel coalition that defeated Gaddafi’s forces were now in the possession of a range of competing factions.
Interim government
Immediately following the end of the NATO intervention in October 2011, the National Transitional Council (NTC)—led by provisional prime minister Mahmoud Jibril, whom Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had met with in Paris earlier in the year—appointed itself as the interim government and set out to develop a road map for political transition.
The NTC had announced in August, when it was apparent that the regime would fall, its plan for an 18-month transition, which would commence promptly at the conflict’s end. There were several legislative hurdles to clear—appointing an interim government, establishing election law and an election commission, and holding congressional elections.
However, the NTC struggled to maintain the confidence of the public because of a lack of transparency in its appointments and decision-making; a cohort of the NTC leadership that included former Gaddafi regime officials; and an effort to placate disgruntled militia members pushing for representation in the transitional body that included granting them amnesty for war crimes committed during the revolution.
The NTC struggled to maintain the confidence of the public because of a lack of transparency in its appointments and decision-making. Also, former revolutionaries ignored calls to disarm or be absorbed into the national armed forces, and the NTC had no means to prevent rival militiamen from looting and fighting in violent late-night skirmishes.
“We are the ones who are holding the power there—the people with the force on the ground—and we are not going to give that up until we have a legitimate government that will emerge from free and fair elections,” Anwar Fekini, a leader of a coalition of militias in the western mountains, told the New York Times in November 2011, abandoning a previous pledge to disarm. Some armed groups took control of state buildings in the aftermath of the revolution, providing leverage over the NTC in negotiations for government jobs.
The Zintan militia, which led the final march on the Libyan capital, Tripoli, that had toppled the regime, took over Tripoli International Airport, and other militias controlled Tripoli’s port, in some of the first signs of post-Gaddafi chaos.
Parliamentary elections
On July 7, 2012, Libya held its first congressional elections since Gaddafi’s 1969 coup, for a body called the General National Congress (GNC), which was supposed to direct the drafting of a national constitution.
This legislative body was designed to govern for 18 months, until the implementation of a constitution, after which new parliamentary elections would take place. Ninety-four percent of polling locations opened, despite interference from armed protesters in the east of Libya who anticipated, and feared, the dominance of the west of Libya in the elections.
The GNC seats were allocated to proportionally represent three main voting blocs: Islamists, which included the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists who sought to govern by sharia; the National Forces Alliance (NFA), Jibril’s party of moderates, which won the most seats; and independents.
On August 8, the NTC handed over power to the elected assembly. Despite the successful holding of elections, the GNC proved incapable of functioning, falling prey to factional infighting and pressure from militias.
This culminated in the passage of the Political Isolation Law in May 2013—a sweeping piece of legislation that excluded broad swaths of Libyans from future government employment on the basis of their affiliation with the Gaddafi regime —as militia power continued to grow through access to state funds.
In Benghazi and the east, the sense of marginalization was compounded by growing violence and a radical threat, exemplified most starkly by the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi by Ansar al-Sharia. The first civilian casualty case in our database perhaps stems from this 2012 attack.
Several Libyans on Twitter on August 11, 2013, reported hearing explosions that might have been caused by U.S. airstrikes in retaliation against this group. Twitter account “@news_yemen” tweeted (in Arabic) that there was an airstrike targeting Ansar al-Sharia’s headquarters in Al-Dahir, a district in Sirte.
The tweet also stated that there was “death.” This possible report of casualties was echoed by a Libyan man named Hatem Ben Mussa, who wrote (in Arabic) on his Twitter account that evening, “Urgent…four killed and 15 wounded in the bombing of Sirte.”
Major Karl Wiest told our researchers that AFRICOM has conducted “post-strike assessments” of all U.S. military actions in the region and after investigating two allegations of civilian casualties in Libya, found both to be not credible. Wiest said in an email, “From the Fall of 2016, the command has assessed two recorded CIVCAS allegations related to operations in Libya.
After thorough investigations, both claims were deemed not credible.” Wiest did not specify which two claims were investigated. However, he also said, “with regards to the specific incidents you highlighted and asked our team to review, they are not assessed as credible with the information currently available.”
The August 11, 2013 strike was one of the highlighted cases sent to AFRICOM for review by New America and Airwars. Despite the successful holding of elections, the GNC proved incapable of functioning, falling prey to factional infighting and pressure from militias. Meanwhile, the GNC continued to clash with armed groups.
On January 19, 2014, the GNC reportedly bombed militias at the Qweira al-Mal gate at the northern entrance to Sabha, an oasis city about 400 miles south of Tripoli. A Middle East news blog, World Akhbar, posted to its Twitter account (in Arabic) about an “aerial bombardment” at the site, and another local account belonging to “@osama_targam” said three children were killed as a result of the air raid.
The strike may have killed Ramadan Faraj Khalifa, Ayman Massoud Ali, and Mu’tasim Mohammed, according to the February 17th Martyrs Brigade, a pro Gaddafi militia that posted the names of the alleged victims to its Facebook page, stating that they were killed. In the course of our research we’ve documented as many as 18 airstrikes that were attributed to the GNC from 2014 to 2015 in media reports and which resulted in four civilian deaths.
The original GNC term was set to conclude on February 7, 2014, but it extended its mandate despite its deep unpopularity in an effort to develop a new constitution. The extension sparked protests, and deadlock within the body led to calls for new elections. Amid this anger with the GNC’s extension, Gen. Khalifa Haftar of the Libyan National Army (LNA) announced the dissolution of the GNC in February 2014, presaging threats against the elected body.
In May 2014, supported by eastern tribes and disaffected military units, Haftar launched Operation Dignity to rid Benghazi of Islamist militias and restore security, as well as to press for elections. The result of those elections, held June 25, was unfavorable to Islamist parties.
The newly elected and Haftar-aligned House of Representatives (HOR) took power, but some members of the old GNC held out in partnership with Libya Dawn, a coalition of Islamist and Misratan militias, along with boycotting HOR members from western Libya who feared for their safety because of the HOR’s relationship with Haftar and its move to the eastern city of Tobruk. The end result was the fracturing of the country into two governments, each with its own parliament, militias and branches of the Central Bank.
_____________________
