Khalifa Haftar

Khalifa Haftar (Arabic: خليفة حفتر, romanized: Ḵalīfa Ḥaftar; born 7 November 1943) is a Libyan-American politician, military officer, and the commander of the Tobruk-based Libyan National Army (LNA). In 2015, he was appointed commander of the armed forces loyal to the elected legislative body, the Libyan House of Representatives. He has been the de facto ruler of the east of Libya since 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 until he was captured by Chadian forces in 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 overthrew Gaddafi in 2011, during the First Libyan Civil War. In 2014, he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to replace the GNC but then developed into the Second Libyan Civil War. In 2017, Ramzi al-Shaeri, vice-president of the Derna city council and lawyers Ryan Goodman and Alex Whiting accused Haftar of the war crime of ordering the killing of prisoners of war during the recapture of Derna. Haftar has been described as "Libya's most potent warlord", having fought "with and against nearly every significant faction" in Libya's conflicts, as having a "reputation for unrivalled military experience" and as governing "with an iron fist". In November 2021, Haftar announced his candidacy for the presidential election in December 2021 before it was postponed.

Although Haftar is reportedly an anti-Islamist, his allies include the Salafi Madkhali militias for geopolitical purposes. Besides his native Arabic, Haftar also speaks English, Italian and Russian, and some French. He is a dual Libyan-US citizen. He is expected to renounce his US citizenship before the next Libyan election.