Libya general vows to recapture Benghazi in month
The army chief of Libya’s internationally recognized government in Tobruk says his forces will retake the major city of Benghazi from rival militants in a matter of a month.
General Khalifa Haftar on Monday promised that it would take just a single month for his forces to recapture Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city, which has been under the control of militants for months.
“Operations in the city of Benghazi will end before the middle of next month,” said Haftar, who is currently based in al-Marj, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Benghazi, adding, “We will end in very little time the presence of the enemy in the region.”
The 72-year old, long-serving Libyan army man was recently promoted to the position of a general and was appointed by the Tobruk government as the new army chief.
Haftar’s mission is to counter the forces of a rival government which is based in the capital, Tripoli, and also controls the strategic city of Benghazi.
The two governments have been battling over control of major towns and installations for having a better share of the country’s oil.
Haftar claimed that the Operation Dignity, the offensive to retake Benghazi from the militants, is a “response to repeated calls by Libyan people for combating terrorism.”
He called on the international community to assist his army in the operation which began last May in Libya’s east.
Since Libya’s former dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, was toppled in 2011, the oil-rich North African country has been gripped by a deadly violence.
The elected legislature which sits in the eastern city of Tobruk has been engaged in several rounds of talks with the rivals, but efforts have so far failed to quash the militancy.
MS/MKA/SS
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