32nd Reinforced Brigade of the Armed People | |
---|---|
Active | 2003–2011 |
Country | Libya |
Allegiance | Military of Libya |
Type | Mechanized infantry |
Role | Heavy Mechanized (Elite Unit) |
Size | 10,000 [1] |
Nickname(s) | Khamis Brigade |
Engagements | First Libyan Civil War |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Khamis Gaddafi † |
The Khamis Brigade, formally the 32nd Reinforced Brigade of the Armed People, [2] was a regime security brigade of the Libyan Armed Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, [3] the leader of Libya from 1969 until 2011. The 32nd Brigade was commanded by Gaddafi's youngest son, Khamis Gaddafi and was called "the most well-trained and well-equipped force in the Libyan military" and "the most important military and security elements of the regime" in leaked U.S. memos. [4]
In 2009, according to news reports, Belgian arms manufacturers delivered 11.5 million € worth of small arms and ammunition to the 32nd Brigade. The aim, according to the Walloon government, was to protect humanitarian convoys heading for Darfur in the Sudan. [5]
The Khamis Brigade was described as the most elite of the three "regime protection units" which together comprised 10,000 men. According to U.S. and European officials, these units were directly loyal to Gaddafi, whereas regular army units made up of conscripts were subject to widespread desertion. [6] The Khamis Brigade engaged anti-government forces [3] and was reported by eyewitnesses to be moving into Benghazi, Bayda and several other cities that were centers of anti-government protests on 19 February 2011 in the company of militias, possibly including foreign mercenaries. [7] [8] Al Arabiya, citing sources in Benghazi, reported that Khamis Gaddafi had recruited French-speaking mercenaries from sub-Saharan Africa. [9]
On 24 February, armored units commanded by Khamis Gaddafi were reported to be moving toward Misrata, Libya's third-largest city and a major port, said to be in the hands of rebels. [10] Meanwhile, multinational mercenaries commanded by the group killed scores and injured dozens in Zawiya, a city symbolic for its resistance to Italian colonization. Local witnesses and speeches by Gaddafi described a chaotic situation with people in civilian clothes fighting one another in the streets. According to former justice minister Mustafa Abdul Jalil, Khamis Gaddafi and two of his brothers were stationed in security centers to the east, west, and south of Tripoli. [11]
The Aruba School in the rebel-held coastal town of Shahhat became the prison for almost 200 suspected mercenaries of the Gaddafi regime from countries such as Niger and Chad. [12] They were reported to be part of Libya's "Khamees' battalion". [12]
On 27 February, residents reported heavy fighting around the Khamis Brigade's headquarters complex in Misrata. An air force school within the complex had been besieged by protesters with light weapons. Despite possessing heavier weaponry, those within had run out of food and water, and a commander surrendered himself for trial. [13] Another report stated that officers at the air force school had mutinied and the adjacent air force base had been overwhelmed. [14]
On 18 April, the headquarters of the Khamis Brigade near Tripoli was bombed and destroyed by NATO planes that took part in the 2011 military intervention in Libya. [15] According to NATO sources, the headquarters had been used to coordinate and lead attacks on civilians. [16]
On 21 August, the Khamis Brigade headquarters 26 kilometres (16 mi) west of Tripoli was overrun by rebel forces as they made a major push towards the capital, allowing rebels to capture large stores of weapons. [17] At this date, the Khamis Brigade were reported to have killed 17 prisoners in a makeshift prison near Gragur in Tripoli. [18] On 23 August 2011, the Khamis Brigade killed around 50 prisoners in a Tripoli warehouse and then set fire to the warehouse. [19]
On 29 August 2011, Khamis Gaddafi was killed in fighting in Tarhuna. [20] On 9 September, the NTC health minister said that the Khamis Brigade had lost around 9,000 soldiers during the war.[ citation needed ] It is unknown who may have commanded remnants of the Khamis Brigade in the closing days of the 2011 Libyan civil war.
Mutassim Billah Gaddafi was a Libyan Army officer, and the National Security Advisor of Libya from 2008 until 2011. He was the fourth son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and a member of his father's inner circle. His mother was Safia Farkash, who was said to be a Hungarian from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Libyan civil war, also known as the First Libyan Civil War, was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya that was fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that were seeking to oust his government. The war was preceded by protests in Zawiya on 8 August 2009 and finally ignited by protests in Benghazi beginning on Tuesday 15 February 2011, which led to clashes with security forces who fired on the crowd. The protests escalated into a rebellion that spread across the country, with the forces opposing Gaddafi establishing an interim governing body, the National Transitional Council.
The battle of Misrata, also known as the siege of Misrata, was a battle of the 2011 Libyan Civil War for the control of Misrata. It was fought between troops loyal to the government of Muammar Gaddafi, and anti-Gaddafi rebels who held Misrata, the third largest city in Libya. Following the initial stages of the uprising, the Libyan government took back most towns in the west of the country, leaving Misrata the only major city under rebel control in Tripolitania. The city soon became the site of one of the war's major battles and the suffering of its citizens gained worldwide attention.
The First Battle of Benghazi occurred as part of the Libyan Civil War between army units and militiamen loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and anti-Gaddafi forces in February 2011. The battle mainly took place in Benghazi, the second-largest city in Libya, with related clashes occurring in the nearby Cyrenaican cities of Bayda and Derna. In Benghazi itself most of the fighting occurred during a siege of the government-controlled Katiba compound.
The Libyan Civil War began on 17 February 2011 as a civil protest and later evolved into a widespread uprising. By mid-August, anti-Gaddafi forces effectively supported by a NATO-led international coalition were ascendant in Tripolitania, breaking out of the restive Nafusa Mountains in the south to mount an offensive toward the coast and advancing from Misrata on loyalist-held cities and villages from the north and east.
The anti-Gaddafi forces, also known as the Libyan opposition or Libyan rebels, were Libyan groups that opposed and militarily defeated the government of Muammar Gaddafi during the First Libyan Civil War in 2011, killing him in the process. The Anti-Gaddafi forces were represented by the National Transitional Council and their National Liberation Army, which claimed to be the "only legitimate body representing the people of Libya and the Libyan state". These opposition forces included organized and armed militia groups, participants in the Libyan Civil War, Libyan diplomats who switched their allegiance from the Gaddafi-led government, and Libyan military units that switched sides to support the protesters.
Khamis Gaddafi was the seventh and youngest son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and the military commander in charge of the Khamis Brigade of the Libyan Army. He was part of his father's inner circle. During the Libyan Civil War in 2011, he was a major target for opposition forces trying to overthrow his father.
The National Liberation Army, officially the National Liberation Armed Forces of the Free Libyan Republic, formerly known as the Free Libyan Army, was a Libyan military organisation affiliated with the National Transitional Council, which was constituted during the First Libyan Civil War by defected military members and civilian volunteers, in order to engage in battle against both remaining members of the Libyan Armed Forces and paramilitia loyal to the rule of Muammar Gaddafi. Its self proclaimed chief commander was General Khalifa Haftar, although the National Transitional Council preferred to appoint Major General Abdul Fatah Younes Al-Obeidi as its commander-in-chief. It had prepared for some time in portions of Eastern Libya controlled by the anti-Gaddafi forces for eventual full-on combat in Western Libya against pro-Gaddafi militants, training many men before beginning to go on the offensive. They have battled for control of Benghazi, Misrata, Brega, Ajdabiya, Zawiya and Ra's Lanuf as well as several towns in the Nafusa Mountains. They finally began the Battle for Tripoli in August 2011 when they attacked from the west of the city, as well as fomenting an internal uprising on 20 August.
Estimates of deaths in the 2011 Libyan vary with figures from 15,000 to 30,000 given between March 2 and October 2, 2011. An exact figure is hard to ascertain, partly due to a media clamp-down by the Libyan government. Some conservative estimates have been released. Some of the killing "may amount to crimes against humanity" according to the United Nations Security Council and as of March 2011, is under investigation by the International Criminal Court.
Free speech in the media during the Libyan civil war describes the ability of domestic and international media to report news inside Libya free from interference and censorship during the civil war.
The outbreak of the Libyan Civil War was followed by accusations of human rights violations by rebel forces opposed to Muammar Gaddafi, Gaddafi's armed forces, and NATO. The alleged violations include rape, extrajudicial killings, ethnic cleansing, misconduct and bombings of civilians.
The Battle of the Misrata frontline was a battle during the Libyan Civil War between pro-Gaddafi loyalists and anti-Gaddafi forces on the western and southwestern outskirts of Misrata, the third largest city in Libya. It ended when anti-Gaddafi soldiers secured Zliten to the west and Tawergha to the south, establishing a significant buffer zone around the city.
The Battle of Zliten followed an unsuccessful uprising in Zliten, Libya, during the Libyan Civil War. It began on 21 July 2011 when elements of the National Liberation Army, part of the anti-Gaddafi forces seeking to overthrow the government of Muammar Gaddafi, moved into the city of Zliten after struggling over the course of the past several months to extend the frontline westward from Misrata, the second-largest city in rebel hands.
The Libyan Civil War began on 15 February 2011 as a chain of civil protests and later evolved into a widespread uprising against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi. On 25 February, most of eastern Libya was reported to be under the control of protesters and rebel forces. Gaddafi remained in control of the cities of Tripoli, Sirte and Sabha. By 15 March, however, Gaddafi's forces had retaken more than half a dozen lost cities. Except for most of Cyrenaica and a few Tripolitania cities the majority of cities had returned to Gaddafi government control.
The timeline of the Libyan civil war begins on 15 February 2011 and ends on 20 October 2011. The conflict began with a series of peaceful protests, similar to others of the Arab Spring, later becoming a full-scale civil war between the forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi's government and the anti-Gaddafi forces. The conflict can roughly be divided into two periods before and after external military intervention authorized by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973.
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The Battle of Tripoli, sometimes referred to as the Fall of Tripoli, was a military confrontation in Tripoli, Libya, between loyalists of Muammar Gaddafi, the longtime leader of Libya, and the National Transitional Council, which was attempting to overthrow Gaddafi and take control of the capital. The battle began on 20 August 2011, six months after the First Libyan Civil War started, with an uprising within the city; rebel forces outside the city planned an offensive to link up with elements within Tripoli, and eventually take control of the nation's capital.
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