Part 1. Libya: What's going on with Khalifa Haftar - the Situation?

Libya is basically divided into two main factions: in the east you have the Libyan National Army (LNA), which is ruled by Khalifa Haftar who has the support of Egypt. To the west, in Tripoli, you have the U.N. backed government, known as the Government of National Accord (GNA). Then you have a bunch of factions such as ISIS and loyalists to Gaddafi scattered across the country.

Now one of those factions is perhaps on the verge of chaos. The LNA may have lost their commander, Khalifa Haftar. The question is his health. He is in either excellent health or just ill or in poor health or dead. What we do know is that he is in France and not Libya.



The first mention of the situation I can find comes from Reuters on April 11th:

Ahmed al-Mismari, spokesman for the Libyan National Army (LNA) that Haftar leads, gave a press statement in the eastern city of Benghazi late on Wednesday, after more than 24 hours of conflicting rumors and reports about Haftar’s health and whereabouts.

Based on this info, it appears questions regarding his health came up on Tuesday, April 10th. I'm currently writing this up on April 20th. He's been out of the public eye for 10 days so far. At a minimum, one should assume he's sick enough to need hospital care.

Reuters followed up with an article on April 14th:

Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar is being treated in Paris after feeling unwell during a foreign tour and is expected to return to Libya within days, a spokesman said . . . On Friday, U.N. Libya envoy Ghassan Salame and several Libyan officials said they had spoken to Haftar by phone.

What's the definition of "spoken to Haftar by phone?" That could be totally truthful as in the officials simply said to someone who isn't aware of what is going on, "Get well, Sir." If he was doing okay, you'd think he'd make an appearance of sorts. A photo or video of him at the hospital. But from what I can tell, no videos or photos of Haftar have been posted anywhere.