Southern Libya offensive
| Southern Libya offensive | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Second Libyan Civil War | ||||||||||
Map showing the LNA's advances in southern Libya | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| Belligerents | ||||||||||
|
House of Representatives (HoR) JEMSLM/A United Arab Emirates (suspected) Co-belligerents: Chad France |
Allied forces: NSG loyalists Tuareg militias Toubou militias Chadian rebels |
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant AQIM (HoR claim) | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | ||||||||||
|
Khalifa Haftar (LNA supreme commander) Abd al-Salim al-Hassi (LNA chief for the west) Hassan Matoug al-Zadma (128th Brigade) Khalifa al-Seghair al-Hasnawi (177th Brigade) Masoud al-Jadi (Deterrence Brigade) |
Fayez al-Sarraj (Head of unity government) Ali Kanna (Southern military zone) Ahmed al-Ataybi (6th Infantry Unit) Muhammad Omar Hassan (166th Battalion) Ahmad Allal (30th Brigade) Ibrahim Muhammad Kari (Murzuq forces) Salah Badi (Al-Sumud Front) |
Al-Mahdi Rajab Dungo (ISIL Minister of Defence for Libya) | ||||||||
| Units involved | ||||||||||
|
Libyan National Army
United Arab Emirates Air Force (suspected) French Air Force (only against Chadian rebels) |
Libyan Army
NSG loyalists
Chadian rebels |
| ||||||||
.svg){kind=link}
In late January 2019, the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Marshal Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive to take control of the city of Sabha and the rest of southern Libya from the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) and local factions. Officially, the LNA announced that the reason for the operation was to remove terrorists, Chadian rebel groups, and secure the border, but it expanded Haftar's territorial control and acquired him oil fields near Sabha. It also restarted some interethnic conflicts as the LNA had allied with local Arab tribes, while the Tuareg and Toubou tribal militias were loyal to the GNA.