Military officer defects to Gen. Khalifa Haftar

Tripoli’s police directorate announced they were joining Haftar’s so-called “operation dignity,” a day after several units in the Libyan army took a similar move.

On Monday the elite Saaqa force, an air force unit in Tobruq and a naval base in Benghazi all pledged support for Haftar’s military operation, which the government has dismissed as a “coup” attempt.

Libyan jihadist group Ansar al-Sharia, blacklisted as a terrorist organization by Washington, vowed Tuesday to defend its stronghold in Benghazi Haftar’s expanding alliance.
 
The group charged that a deadly assault in the eastern city on Friday which mainly targeted its forces was “a war against... Islam orchestrated by the United States and its Arab allies.”
 
Forces loyal to Haftar pulled out of Benghazi after the attack which left at least 79 people dead, but he has vowed to re-enter Benghazi to cleanse it of “terrorists.”