...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...in eastern Libya, The Telegraph has reported.
The British daily newspaper quoted Whitehall sources as saying that "private military company Wagner Group has been supporting Khalifa Haftar with 300 personnel in Benghazi and has supplied his army with artillery, tanks, drones and ammunition."
"They are trying to secure the deep-water ports of Tobruk and Derna for the Russian Fleet and also could control the flow of oil to southern Europe
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...if they take over Libya's energy industry", the source added.
The Wagner Group is linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin (red-circled in photo), a businessman known as "Putin's chef" who was sanctioned by the United States after his online troll factory interfered in the 2016 election.
Prigozhin was filmed sitting at a table with Haftar and Russia's defence minister during talks in November. Flight tracking data showed a private jet linked to Prigozhin repeatedly came on the radar heading to or from Libyan airspace, most recently in January.
According to other western reports, Russia has set up two military bases in eastern Libya.