ARMY engineers defused three bombs hidden by Islamic State (IS) militants in Ibrahim Mohamed’s home before letting him enter. One was concealed in his mother’s favourite chair.
"I didn’t take anything with me, as I thought I’d only be gone for a day or two," the 39-year-old said, as he wiped footprints from photographs discarded by jihadists who used his three-storey house as a hideout during 18 months of fighting in Libya’s Benghazi.
"It seems they experienced the same feeling during their last moments in my home."
Mohamed’s return was made possible by Libyan forces’ biggest victory over IS, an achievement welcomed by world leaders alarmed that the holder of Africa’s largest oil reserves is becoming the latest stronghold of the militant group.
Yet, in a twist typical of the country’s chaos, the success bolstered a general whose ambitions are an obstacle to United Nations (UN) efforts to forge a national unity government, highlighting the struggle to catch up with realities on the ground dictated by local strongmen.
"Khalifa Haftar’s profile is rising," Mattia Toaldo, a Libya analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations in London, says of the general.
"He has a lot of control over everything that happens in Tobruk."
Tobruk, the headquarters of Libya’s eastern administration, has repeatedly rejected a UN plan that could topple Haftar from his top security role. A rival government is based in Tripoli.
Events in Benghazi sum up the challenges Libya has posed since the revolution that removed Muammar Gaddafi with the help of a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) bombing campaign spearheaded by France and Britain.
Two governments and dozens of allied militias have put control over the country’s oil wealth and territory above reconciliation, leaving global powers with no effective partner to ease a crisis that has allowed militancy to take root and fuelled Europe’s refugee crisis.
As it has been pushed back in Iraq and Syria, IS has focused on Libya, bringing new priorities for commanders such as Haftar.
Flushed by his recent success, he is less likely to support the UN unity accord, which also calls for new leadership for the national military, a post he occupies, says Toaldo.
Either Haftar’s allies in Tobruk will "manage to renegotiate the terms of the UN agreement in their favour, or they will keep not voting, or voting on things that won’t fly. They’ll keep buying time."
UN special envoy to Libya, Martin Kobler told the Security Council last Wednesday that the process could not be "held hostage by minorities". There were clear majorities on both sides in favour of moving forward quickly, "and the country needs to do this now to avoid collapse".
Western powers have been hitting IS in Libya. Officials in Washington, Paris and Rome have denied reports of special forces deployments, and say they will step up operations only when requested to by a unity government.
IS still controls coastal territory, and the destruction in Mohamed’s neighbourhood of al-Lithie is testament to how entrenched it had become.
Graffiti that read "Islamic State will remain" had been altered to "Benghazi will remain". According to a local saying, whoever controls the city, the cradle of the uprising against Gaddafi, controls Libya.
The head of the military’s media office says the entire city will be free within days, but that appears to be unlikely, with only three neighbourhoods retaken.
Haftar defected from Gaddafi’s army in the 1980s before heading into US exile.
He joined the February 2011 rebellion that ousted the dictator and three years later, made his move for a larger role, attempting to rally the nation against Islamist gunmen and their political allies in Tripoli.
He has had failures and successes, the most recent advance in Benghazi.
Rami al-Shihaibie, a security analyst in the city, warned that any unity administration that doesn’t recognise de facto authority will fail.
"You need to share the power between those politicians who have a say over the foot soldiers on the ground. Otherwise you’ll have an imaginary government."
The problem for the UN is that few in Libya can agree on much.
The two key administrations have feuded since mid-2014 when the Tripoli-based legislature, the General National Congress controlled by Islamists and revolutionaries, refused to hand power to the elected House of Representatives, which fled to Tobruk.
In the past week, MPs in Tobruk failed twice to hold scheduled votes of confidence in the UN proposal that appeared heading for success after talks in Tunis in January.
Bloomberg
GUTTED: The destruction wrought by Islamic State in Benghazi is testament to how entrenched it has become in the Libyan city. Picture: REUTERS/ESAM OMRAN AL-FETORI
ARMY engineers defused three bombs hidden by Islamic State (IS) militants in Ibrahim Mohamed’s home before letting him enter. One was concealed in his mother’s favourite chair.
"I didn’t take anything with me, as I thought I’d only be gone for a day or two," the 39-year-old said, as he wiped footprints from photographs discarded by jihadists who used his three-storey house as a hideout during 18 months of fighting in Libya’s Benghazi.
"It seems they experienced the same feeling during their last moments in my home."
Mohamed’s return was made possible by Libyan forces’ biggest victory over IS, an achievement welcomed by world leaders alarmed that the holder of Africa’s largest oil reserves is becoming the latest stronghold of the militant group.
Yet, in a twist typical of the country’s chaos, the success bolstered a general whose ambitions are an obstacle to United Nations (UN) efforts to forge a national unity government, highlighting the struggle to catch up with realities on the ground dictated by local strongmen.
"Khalifa Haftar’s profile is rising," Mattia Toaldo, a Libya analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations in London, says of the general.
"He has a lot of control over everything that happens in Tobruk."
Tobruk, the headquarters of Libya’s eastern administration, has repeatedly rejected a UN plan that could topple Haftar from his top security role. A rival government is based in Tripoli.
Events in Benghazi sum up the challenges Libya has posed since the revolution that removed Muammar Gaddafi with the help of a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) bombing campaign spearheaded by France and Britain.
Two governments and dozens of allied militias have put control over the country’s oil wealth and territory above reconciliation, leaving global powers with no effective partner to ease a crisis that has allowed militancy to take root and fuelled Europe’s refugee crisis.
As it has been pushed back in Iraq and Syria, IS has focused on Libya, bringing new priorities for commanders such as Haftar.
Flushed by his recent success, he is less likely to support the UN unity accord, which also calls for new leadership for the national military, a post he occupies, says Toaldo.
Either Haftar’s allies in Tobruk will "manage to renegotiate the terms of the UN agreement in their favour, or they will keep not voting, or voting on things that won’t fly. They’ll keep buying time."
UN special envoy to Libya, Martin Kobler told the Security Council last Wednesday that the process could not be "held hostage by minorities". There were clear majorities on both sides in favour of moving forward quickly, "and the country needs to do this now to avoid collapse".
Western powers have been hitting IS in Libya. Officials in Washington, Paris and Rome have denied reports of special forces deployments, and say they will step up operations only when requested to by a unity government.
IS still controls coastal territory, and the destruction in Mohamed’s neighbourhood of al-Lithie is testament to how entrenched it had become.
Graffiti that read "Islamic State will remain" had been altered to "Benghazi will remain". According to a local saying, whoever controls the city, the cradle of the uprising against Gaddafi, controls Libya.
The head of the military’s media office says the entire city will be free within days, but that appears to be unlikely, with only three neighbourhoods retaken.
Haftar defected from Gaddafi’s army in the 1980s before heading into US exile.
He joined the February 2011 rebellion that ousted the dictator and three years later, made his move for a larger role, attempting to rally the nation against Islamist gunmen and their political allies in Tripoli.
He has had failures and successes, the most recent advance in Benghazi.
Rami al-Shihaibie, a security analyst in the city, warned that any unity administration that doesn’t recognise de facto authority will fail.
"You need to share the power between those politicians who have a say over the foot soldiers on the ground. Otherwise you’ll have an imaginary government."
The problem for the UN is that few in Libya can agree on much.
The two key administrations have feuded since mid-2014 when the Tripoli-based legislature, the General National Congress controlled by Islamists and revolutionaries, refused to hand power to the elected House of Representatives, which fled to Tobruk.
In the past week, MPs in Tobruk failed twice to hold scheduled votes of confidence in the UN proposal that appeared heading for success after talks in Tunis in January.
Bloomberg
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