... 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...
, Rooters reported the head of the firm that hired the contractors as saying.
It is the clearest signal to date that Moscow is prepared to back up its public diplomatic support for Haftar ‐ even at the risk of alarming Western governments already irked at Russia’s intervention in Syria to prop up dictator
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
Haftar is opposed to a UN-backed government which Western states see as the best chance of restoring stability in Libya. But some Russian policymakers see the Libyan as a strongman who can end the six years of anarchy that followed the ousting of veteran tyrant Muammar Qadaffy
...a reminder that a single man with an idea can change an entire nation, usually for the worse...
The presence of the military contractors was, according to the head of the firm, a commercial arrangement. It is unlikely though to have been possible without Moscow’s approval, according to people who work in the industry in Russia.
Read: Russia and Libya sign new oil deal
Oleg Krinitsyn, owner of private Russian firm RSB-group, said he sent the contractors to eastern Libya last year and they were pulled out in February having completed their mission.
In an interview with Rooters, he said their task was to remove mines from an industrial facility near the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, in an area that Haftar’s forces had captured from rebels.
He declined to say who hired his firm to provide the contractors, where they were operating or what the industrial facility was. He did not say if the operation had been approved by the UN-backed government, which most states view as the sovereign ruler of Libya.
Asked whether the mission had official blessing from Moscow, Krinitsyn said his firm did not work with the Russian defence ministry, but was "consulting" with the Russian foreign ministry.