Khalifa Haftar

Khalifa Haftar (Arabic: خليفة حفتر, romanized: Ḵalīfa Ḥaftar; born 7 November 1943) is a Libyan politician, military officer, and the commander of the Tobruk-based Libyan National Army (LNA). A prominent officer for the Libyan Arab Republic and its successor, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, from 1969 to 1987, he has been a major figure of the Libyan crisis since 2011. In 2015, he was appointed commander of the armed forces loyal to the elected legislative body, the Libyan House of Representatives. Haftar has been the de facto ruler of the eastern part of Libya since early 2017, governing the region as a military dictatorship under the LNA. Haftar was born in Ajdabiya. He served in the Libyan Army under Muammar Gaddafi, and took part in the coup that brought Gaddafi to power in 1969. He participated in the Libyan contingent against Israel in the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Haftar then participated in the Chadian-Libyan war (1978–1987), becoming promoted to Chief officer of the Libyan military in Chad in 1986 for the final phase of the conflict, known as the Toyota War, until he was captured by Chadian forces in April 1987 and held as a prisoner of war, which was seen as a major embarrassment for Gaddafi and represented a major blow to Gaddafi's ambitions in Chad. While being held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Gaddafi. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades living in the U.S. in Langley, Virginia, and gained U.S. citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia in Libya, of crimes against the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the forces that...