{Islamist militias in Libya have lost two major areas in the eastern city of Benghazi, military sources and residents have told the BBC.}<\/p>\n
“People are celebrating on the streets,” a resident said.<\/p>\n
Fighters loyal to anti-Islamist Gen Khalifa Haftar are reported to have taken over the port, a hospital and have cut off a key weapons supply line.<\/p>\n
Thousands have fled more than a year of fighting in Benghazi, the birthplace of the 2011 uprising.<\/p>\n
Once in the Libyan army, Gen Haftar fought with revolutionaries to overthrow long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi.<\/p>\n
Libya has since fragmented and has rival parliaments backed by various militias and brigades spawned by the uprising.<\/p>\n
The chaos has allowed Islamic State fighters to gain a foothold in the country, and some are believed to be fighting with other Islamist militias in Benghazi.<\/p>\n
In January, the UN brokered a deal between rival lawmakers to form a unity government, but this has not yet happened.<\/p>\n
The controversial Gen Haftar’s gains give him a stronger hand in Libya’s volatile political landscape, and puts military actors in eastern and western Libya on a near equal-footing in terms of territorial control.<\/p>\n
The general and his political backers will now be emboldened to demand a greater say in who leads the army under the proposed unity government.<\/p>\n
But the already faltering peace process could go back to square one as politicians and militiamen in the west, who are vehemently opposed to the general, harden their attitude.<\/p>\n
One MP in the west, who played a key role in getting the big Misrata brigades to support the peace process, has already launched a scathing attack on Gen Haftar, calling him a “dictatorial coup leader”.<\/p>\n
Last year, Gen Haftar was appointed as the head of armed forces for the parliament based in the eastern port city of Tobruk.<\/p>\n
Some of the Islamist militias he has been battling in his hometown of Benghazi are backed by political factions in the west, where the Tripoli administration is based.<\/p>\n
{{Who is General Khalifa Haftar?}}<\/p>\n
General Khalifa Haftar speaks during a news conference at a sports club in Abyar, east of Benghazi 21 May 2014Image copyrightReuters<\/p>\n
Helped Col Muammar Gaddafi overthrow Libya’s King Idris in 1969<\/p>\n
Libyan chief of staff until 1987, when he was disowned by Gaddafi after being captured in war with Chad<\/p>\n
Moved to the US state of Virginia after his release in the early 1990s<\/p>\n
Said to have had close ties with the CIA<\/p>\n
Devoted the next two decades to toppling Gaddafi<\/p>\n
Returned to Libya during the 2011 uprising against Gaddafi and became one of the main rebel commanders in the east<\/p>\n
Called on Libyans to rise up against the elected parliament in 2014<\/p>\n
Last year appointed head of the armed forces for the Tobruk parliament<\/p>\n
Source:BBC:[Libyan Islamist militias ‘lose key territory in Benghazi’->http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-35640173]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Islamist militias in Libya have lost two major areas in the eastern city of Benghazi, military sources and residents have told the BBC.} “People are celebrating on the streets,” a resident said. Fighters loyal to anti-Islamist Gen Khalifa Haftar are reported to have taken over the port, a hospital and have cut off a key […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-23469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23469"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=23469"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=23469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}