Libyan Armed Forces

The original Libyan Armed Forces (Arabic: القوات المسلحة الليبية) under the Kingdom of Libya of King Idris I was trained by the United Kingdom and the United States. Since Muammar Gaddafi rose to power in 1969, Libya received military assistance from the Soviet Union. The Libyan military fought in several wars, including the Libyan–Egyptian War (1977) and the Chadian–Libyan conflict (1978–1987). The armed forces dissolved in the course of the Libyan civil war (2011), and after a second civil war, armed groups in Libya were divided between west and east. The Government of National Accord's Libyan Army is a collection of militias around Tripoli. In the east after Khalifa Haftar was appointed in 2015 by the Libyan parliament in Tobruk as the supreme commander, many militias in the eastern part of Libya came under his command as the "Libyan National Army" (LNA). (Arabic: الجيش الوطني الليبي). As of November 2019, the regular core of the LNA (about 7000 soldiers) was complemented by Salafist militias and foreign mercenaries (about 18000 soldiers). As of 2019, the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) retained formal control of the militias nominally constituting the Libyan Army, while the Libyan Air Force was split into LNA and GNA controlled components. The naval and coast guard forces were mostly under GNA control. with some coastal patrol boats under LNA control. In 2021, armed groups in Libya were split between the Government of National Unity under the new President of Libya, Mohamed al-Menfi, and Haftar's forces in the East.