US court seeks Libyan general

An arrest warrant for Libya’s renegade General Khalifa Haftar has been issued by a US court on the basis that the general, who has dual US and Libyan nationality, bears responsibility for the indiscriminate shelling of civilians in Tripoli. The lawsuit against Haftar and his Libyan National Army forces that invaded Tripoli in early April in an attempt to overthrow the internationally-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), was filed by four families related to those killed. A report on the IoL site notes that the Virginia court said that if Haftar didn't answer to his arrest warrant, he would be sentenced in absentia. Legalbrief reports that Haftar served in the Libyan army under Muammar Gaddafi, and took part in the coup that brought Gaddafi to power in 1969. In 1987, he became a prisoner of war during the war against Chad. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Gaddafi. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the US Government and spent nearly two decades in Langley, Virginia where he secured his US citizenship.