Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — Libya’s Western-trained military appears to be disintegrating.

Units of the Libyan military have been joining the so-called National Army led by Gen. Khalifa Hafter, a former resident of Northern Virginia.

The units joined an offensive by Hafter against Al Qaida-aligned militias that controlled the eastern city of Benghazi.

Hafter, part of the 1969 coup that brought Moammar Gadhafi to power, has been regarded as a mysterious figure in Libya. Diplomatic sources linked the renegade general to U.S. intelligence as early as 1991.

“The Tobruk air force base will join the army under the command of Gen. Khalifa Qassim Hafter,” the Libyan Air Force base said.

On May 16, Hafter launched a campaign to drive rebel militias out of Benghazi. The operation, which the Tripoli government renounced, included hundreds of combat vehicles as well as several fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft.

Libya’s Special Forces Command joined Hafter on May 19. The commander, Col. Wanis Bukhamada, said his elite force would participate in the assault on Benghazi, termed Operation Dignity.

On May 18, Hafter supporters were said to have stormed parliament, unable to elect a government.

“We announce to the world that the country can’t be a breeding ground or
an incubator for terrorism,” Hafter spokesman, Gen. Mokhtar Farnana, said.

  Benghazi, Col. Wanis Bukhamada, Gen. Khalifa Hafter, Libyan military collapses as units join Gen. Hafter’s ‘National Army’, Moammar Gadhafi