Libya: Notes on what is going on in Tripoli

This post is an update about what is going on in Tripoli.

Back on Dec 12th, Reuters had an article up on the situation in Tripoli. It is filled with names and details so is a little hard to follow. Here's me trying to simplify:

Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigade (headed by Haithem Tajouri). Tajouri had left the country for a month and returned "dressed in blue Emirati robes." That led to speculation that he was aligned with the UAE, which just so happens to back Khalifa Haftar in the east.

Rada (headed by Abdulraouf Kara). Their base is at the airport and is linked to other militias outside the capital that hold ultraconservative religious ideology.



Al Somoud Brigade (headed by Salah Badi). They're based in Misrata and are under asset freezes and travel bans by the U.N. and U.S. The Brigade has conducted assaults against Tripoli.

Nawasi. Another militia that has its hands in the sovereign wealth fund.

Reuters mentioned that elections were supposed to be held on December 10th. This didn't happen, but a national conference was supposed to be held in January.  The Guardian had a follow up on this future conference:

Speaking to the UN security council, [UN special envoy Ghassan] Salamé refused to set a date or venue for the conference, instead saying he was working night and day in the hope of it being staged “in the coming weeks”.

The Guardian points out that the national conference is being set back due to the end of the four month cease fire in Tripoli. There are also conflicts between the Government of National Accord (GNA) and the house of representatives. The GNA itself might be splitting apart.

There is this sort snippet about what Khalifa Haftar is up to:

In the impoverished and largely lawless south-west, Marshal Khalifa Haftar has launched a military campaign that his spokesman claims is trying to stabilise the major oilfield and defeat forces being supplied by Turkey and Qatar.

Interesting that Turkey and Qatar are supporting those in the south-west. Note that UAE supports Haftar. There are so many hands right now in Libya.

Al Jazeera has some recent news about these conflicts in Tripoli.

The groups involved in the clashes are known as the Seventh Brigade, or Kaniyat, and a collection of factions called Tripoli Protection Force. The Seventh Brigade and some allied groups triggered the August fighting in a bid to challenge the dominance of four "super militias", including the Tripoli Protection Force, in the streets of the capital.

I wrote back in September 2018 about the Seventh Brigade. They're from Tarhouna, which is 45 miles southeast of Tripoli. There is no mention of Al Somoud Brigade joining with the Seventh Brigade in this current assault on Tripoli.