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This discussion focuses on Libya since the 18th century. For a treatment of earlier periods and of the country in its regional context, see North Africa.

Largely desert with some limited potential for urban and sedentary life in the northwest and northeast, Libya has historically never been heavily populated or a power centre. Like that of its neighbour Algeria, Libyas very name is a neologism, created by the conquering Italians early in the 20th century. Also like that of Algeria, much of Libyas earlier historynot only in the Islamic period but even beforereveals that both Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were more closely linked with neighbouring territories Tunisia and Egypt, respectively, than with each other. Even during the Ottoman era, the country was divided into two parts, one linked to Tripoli in the west and the other to Banghz in the east.

Libya thus owes its present unity as a state less to earlier history or geographic characteristics than to several recent factors: the unifying effect of the Sansiyyah movement since the 19th century; Italian colonialism from 1911 until after World War II; an early independence by default, since the great powers could agree on no other solution; and the discovery of oil in commercial quantities in the late 1950s. Yet the Sansiyyah is based largely in the eastern region of Cyrenaica and has never really penetrated the more populous northwestern region of Tripolitania. Italian colonization was brief and brutal. Moreover, most of the hard-earned gains in infrastructure implanted in the colonial period were destroyed by contending armies during World War II. Sudden oil wealth has been both a boon and a curse as changes to the political and social fabric, as well as to the economy, have accelerated. This difficult legacy of disparate elements and forces helps to explain the unique character of present-day Libya.

The future of Libya gave rise to long discussions after the war. In view of the contribution to the fighting made by a volunteer Sans force, the British foreign minister pledged in 1942 that the Sanss would not again be subjected to Italian rule. During the discussions, which lasted four years, suggestions included an Italian trusteeship, a United Nations (UN) trusteeship, a Soviet mandate for Tripolitania, and various compromises. Finally, in November 1949, the UN General Assembly voted that Libya should become a united and independent kingdom no later than January 1, 1952.

A constitution creating a federal state with a separate parliament for each province was drawn up, and the pro-British head of the Sansiyyah, Sd Muammad Idrs al-Mahd al-Sans, was chosen king by a national assembly in 1950. On December 24, 1951, King Idris I declared the country independent. Political parties were prohibited, and the kings authority was sovereign. Though not themselves Sanss, the Tripolitanians accepted the monarchy largely in order to profit from the British promise that the Sanss would not again be subjected to Italian rule. King Idris, however, showed a marked preference for living in Cyrenaica, where he built a new capital on the site of the Sans zwiyah at Al-Bay. Though Libya joined the Arab League in 1953 and in 1956 refused British troops permission to land during the Suez Crisis, the government in general adopted a pro-Western position in international affairs.

With the discovery of significant oil reserves in 1959, Libya changed abruptly from being dependent on international aid and the rent from U.S. and British air bases to being an oil-rich monarchy. Major petroleum deposits in both Tripolitania and Cyrenaica ensured the country income on a vast scale. The discovery was followed by an enormous expansion in all government services, massive construction projects, and a corresponding rise in the economic standard and the cost of living.

Precipitated by the kings failure to speak out against Israel during the June War (1967), a coup was carried out on September 1, 1969, by a group of young army officers led by Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi, who deposed the king and proclaimed Libya a republic. The new regime, passionately Pan-Arab, broke the monarchys close ties to Britain and the United States and also began an assertive policy that led to higher oil prices along with 51 percent Libyan participation in oil company activities and, in some cases, outright nationalization.

Equally assertive in plans for Arab unity, Libya obtained at least the formal beginnings of unity with Egypt, Sudan, and Tunisia, but these and other such plans failed as differences arose between the governments concerned. Qaddafis Libya supported the Palestinian cause and intervened to support it, as well as other guerrilla and revolutionary organizations in Africa and the Middle East. Such moves alienated the Western countries and some Arab states. In JulyAugust 1977 hostilities broke out between Libya and Egypt, and, as a result, many Egyptians working in Libya were expelled. Indeed, despite expressed concern for Arab unity, the regimes relations with most Arab countries deteriorated. Qaddafi signed a treaty of union with Moroccos King Hassan II in August 1984, but Hassan abrogated the treaty two years later.

The regime, under Qaddafis ideological guidance, continued to introduce innovations. On March 2, 1977, the General Peoples Congress declared that Libya was to be known as the Peoples Socialist Libyan Arab Jamhriyyah (the latter term is a neologism meaning government through the masses). By the early 1980s, however, a drop in the demand and price for oil on the world market was beginning to hamper Qaddafis efforts to play a strong regional role. Ambitious efforts to radically change Libyas economy and society slowed, and there were signs of domestic discontent. Libyan opposition movements launched sporadic attacks against Qaddafi and his military supporters but met with arrest and execution.

Libyas relationship with the United States, which had been an important trading partner, deteriorated in the early 1980s as the U.S. government increasingly protested Qaddafis support of Palestinian Arab militants. An escalating series of retaliatory trade restrictions and military skirmishes culminated in a U.S. bombing raid of Tripoli and Banghz in 1986, in which Qaddafis adopted daughter was among the casualties. U.S. claims that Libya was producing chemical warfare materials contributed to the tension between the two countries in the late 1980s and the 90s.

Within the region, Libya sought throughout the 1970s and 80s to control the mineral-rich Aozou Strip, along the disputed border with neighbouring Chad. These efforts produced intermittent warfare in Chad and confrontation with both France and the United States. In 1987 Libyan forces were bested by Chads more mobile troops, and diplomatic ties with that country were restored late the following year. Libya denied involvement in Chads December 1990 coup led by Idriss Dby (see Chad: Civil war).

In 1996 the United States and the UN implemented a series of economic sanctions against Libya for its purported involvement in destroying a civilian airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. In the late 1990s, in an effort to placate the international community, Libya turned over the alleged perpetrators of the bombing to international authorities and accepted a ruling by the international court in The Hague stating that the contested Aozou territory along the border with Chad belonged to that country and not to Libya. The United Kingdom restored diplomatic relations with Libya at the end of the decade, and UN sanctions were lifted in 2003; later that year Libya announced that it would stop producing chemical weapons. The United States responded by dropping most of its sanctions, and the restoration of full diplomatic ties between the two countries was completed in 2006. In 2007 five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who had been sentenced to death in Libya after being tried on charges of having deliberately infected children there with HIV were extradited to Bulgaria and quickly pardoned by its president, defusing widespread outcry over the case and preventing the situation from posing an obstacle to Libyas return to the international community.

In the years that followed the lifting of sanctions, one of Qaddafis sons, Sayf al-Islam al-Qaddafi, emerged as a proponent of reform and helped lead Libya toward adjustments in its domestic and foreign policy. Measures including efforts to attract Western business and plans to foster tourism promised to gradually draw Libya more substantially into the global community.

In February 2011, in the midst of a wave of popular demonstrations in the Middle East and North Africa, antigovernment rallies were held in Banghz by protesters angered by the arrest of a human rights lawyer, Fethi Tarbel. Libyan security forces used water cannons and live fire against the crowds, resulting in a number of injuries and deaths.

As protests intensified, with demonstrators taking control of Banghz and unrest spreading to Tripoli and other areas of the country, the security forces and squads of mercenaries loyal to the government began to use lethal force freely, firing indiscriminately into crowds. The regime restricted communications, blocking the Internet and interrupting telephone service throughout the country. On February 21 one of Qaddafis sons, Sayf al-Islam, gave a defiant address on state television, blaming outside agitators for the unrest and saying that further demonstrations could lead to civil war in the country. He vowed that the regime would fight to the last bullet. The next day Muammar al-Qaddafi delivered an angry rambling speech on state television, condemning the protesters as traitors and calling on his supporters to fight them.

The governments use of violence against civilians drew condemnation from foreign leaders and human rights organizations. It also seemed to damage the coherence of the regime, causing a number of high-level officials to resign in protest. A number of Libyan embassies around the world signaled their support for the uprising by flying Libyas pre-Qaddafi flag.

Within days of the first protests, the anti-Qaddafi movement began to evolve into an armed rebellion as demonstrators acquired weapons from abandoned government arms depots. By late February, rebel forces had expelled most pro-Qaddafi troops from the eastern portion of Libya, including the city of Banghz, and from many western cities. The Libyan-Egyptian border was opened, allowing foreign journalists into the country for the first time since the conflict began. Pro-Qaddafi paramilitary units continued to hold the city of Tripoli, where Qaddafi and his inner circle remained.

International pressure for Qaddafi to step down gradually increased. On February 26 the UN Security Council unanimously approved a measure that included sanctions against the Qaddafi regime, imposing a travel ban and an arms embargo and freezing the Qaddafi familys assets. The measure also referred the case to the International Criminal Court (ICC). The United States, the European Union, and a number of other countries also imposed sanctions.

A rebel leadership council emerged in Banghz in early March. Known as the Transitional National Council (TNC), it declared that its aims would be to act as the rebellions military leadership and as the representative of the Libyan opposition, provide services in rebel-held areas, and guide the countrys transition to democratic government.

In the weeks that followed, the conflict appeared to enter a stalemate and then to tilt in Qaddafis favour. Despite the rebels impressive gains in February, the Qaddafi regime still controlled enough soldiers and weapons to hold Tripoli and to stage fresh ground and air assaults which rebel fighters struggled to repel. Most fighting took place in the towns around Tripoli and in the central coastal region, where rebels and Qaddafi loyalists battled for control of the oil-export terminals on the Gulf of Sidra.

The international community continued to debate possible diplomatic and military intervention in the conflict. Countries worked to establish contact with the TNC and in some cases began to recognize it as Libyas legitimate government. At an emergency summit on March 11 the European Union unanimously called for Qaddafi to step down. However, the international community remained divided over the possibility of military intervention. Some countries, including France and the United Kingdom, sought the establishment of a no-fly zone over Libya to protect rebels and civilians from air attacks, while others, including the United States and Germany, expressed reservations, emphasizing the need for broad international consensus and warning against possible unforeseen consequences of military intervention. The African Union (AU) rejected any military intervention, asserting that the crisis should be resolved through negotiations, whereas the Arab League passed a resolution on March 13 calling on the UN Security Council to impose a no-fly zone over Libya.

On March 15 Qaddafi loyalists captured the eastern city of Ajdbiy, the last large rebel-held city on the route to Banghz. As they advanced on the remaining rebel positions in Banghz and Tobruk in the east and Mirtah in the west, the UN Security Council voted on March 17 to authorize military action, including a no-fly zone to protect Libyan civilians. Beginning on March 19, an international coalition led by the U.S., France, and the United Kingdom began to carry out air and missile strikes to disable Libyas air force and air defense systems so the no-fly zone could be imposed. Coalition missiles also struck buildings in a compound used by Qaddafi as a command centre.

Within a week Libyas air force and air defenses were out of commission. However, heavy fighting continued on the ground. Pro-Qaddafi units massed around the rebel-held city of Mirtah and the contested city of Ajdbiy, shelling both and causing significant civilian casualties. Attacks by coalition warplanes soon weakened pro-Qaddafi ground forces in eastern Libya, allowing rebels to advance and retake Ajdbiy, Marsa el-Brega, Ras Lanuf, and Bin Jawwad.

On March 27 the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) officially took over command of military operations in Libya from the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. The handover came after several days of debate among NATO countries over the limits of international military intervention; several countries argued that the coalitions aggressive targeting of pro-Qaddafi ground forces had exceeded the mandate set by the UN Security Council to protect civilians.

By April the conflict seemed to have returned to a stalemate; Qaddafis troops, though weakened by the coalition assault, still appeared strong enough to prevent the disorganized and poorly equipped rebels from achieving decisive victories. Diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis intensified, with an AU delegation traveling to Tripoli on April 10 to present a cease-fire plan that was quickly rejected by both sides.

On April 30 a NATO air strike on a house in Qaddafis compound in Tripoli killed Qaddafis youngest son, Sayf al-Arab, along with three of Qaddafis grandchildren. Qaddafi was present at the site of the strike but avoided injury. More strikes in early May targeted government buildings associated with Qaddafi and Libyas senior military leadership, but NATO representatives denied claims that NATO had adopted a strategy of trying to kill Qaddafi and other high-ranking Libyan officials.

International pressure on Qaddafi continued to build. The ICC, which in early March had opened an investigation into alleged war crimes by members of the Qaddafi regime, announced on May 16 that it would seek arrest warrants against Qaddafi, his son Sayf al-Islam, and the head of Libyan intelligence, Abdullah Senussi, for ordering attacks on civilians in Libya.

In August 2011 rebel forces advanced to the outskirts of Tripoli, taking control of strategic areas, including the city of Zwiyah, the site of one of Libyas largest oil refineries. Rebels soon advanced into Tripoli, taking over some areas of the capital on August 22. The next day, rebel forces established control over most of the city and captured the Bb al-Azziyyah compound, Qaddafis headquarters. Rebels raised Libyas pre-Qaddafi flag over the compound while jubilant crowds destroyed symbols of Qaddafi, whose whereabouts were unknown.

By early September rebel forces had solidified their control of Tripoli, and the TNC began to transfer its operations to the capital. Qaddafi remained in hiding, occasionally issuing defiant audio messages. In the few remaining cities under loyalist control, rebels attempted to negotiate with loyalist commanders to surrender and avoid a bloody ground assault. In late September rebel forces began to advance into Ban Wald and Surt, the two remaining strongholds of Qaddafi loyalists. On October 20 Qaddafi was captured and killed in Surt by rebel fighters.

(For coverage of unrest in Libya in 2011 and the aftermath in 2012, see Libya Revolt of 2011.)

The TNC struggled to establish a functional government and exert its authority in the months that followed the fall of the Qaddafi regime. Local rebel militias that had fought autonomously during the uprising, especially those in western Libya, were reluctant to submit to an interim government formed in eastern Libya with little input from the rest of the country and were suspicious of some TNC officials past ties to the Qaddafi regime. The militias refused to disarm, and skirmishes between rival militias became commonplace.

Elections to choose the members of a 200-seat assembly, the General National Congress (GNC), were held in July 2012 in spite of occasional outbursts of violence caused by local and regional power struggles. The National Forces Alliance, a secular party led by Mahmoud Jibril, a former TNC official and interim prime minister, won the largest number of seats.

New concerns about Libyas stability arose in September 2012 when members of the militant Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia launched a surprise attack on the U.S. consulate in Banghz, killing four Americans including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens.

Within the GNC there were disputes over the assemblys functions and mandate, and boycotts threatened its overall viability. The divisions between armed groups continued to deepenwith steadily increasing bloodshedas the central government proved unable to control even those that were nominally aligned with government ministries. In an episode that seemed to encapsulate the disordered state of Libyan politics, Prime Minister Ali Zeidan was briefly kidnapped in October 2013 by militia members aligned with the ministries of defense and the interior. He was quickly released unharmed.

Groups also sought to exact concessions from the central government by disrupting oil production, its main source of revenue. Strikes by disgruntled oil workers caused fluctuations in production in early 2013. Later in the year, a militia commanded by Ibrahim Jathran, a former rebel commander, seized several oil terminals and demanded greater autonomy and a greater share of oil revenues for eastern Libya. Jathrans attempts to sell oil independently from the central government were thwarted in 2014 when the U.S. Navy seized a tanker carrying oil from one of the ports under his control, and he was ultimately forced to relinquish the oil facilities he held. Attacks on oil infrastructure by a variety of armed groups continued, however, and oil revenues fluctuated accordingly.

In May 2014 Khalifah Haftar, a general acting without authorization from the central government, led forces under his control in a campaign dubbed Operation Dignity against Islamists and other groups aligned with Islamists in eastern Libya. Haftar also condemned the GNC as dominated by Islamists, and fighters loyal to him made an unsuccessful attempt to seize the parliament building in Tripoli in May.

In June a new national assembly was elected to replace the GNC, whose 18-month mandate had officially expired in February. Security concerns and voter disillusionment held turnout to less than 20 percent. The election delivered a resounding victory for liberal and secular candidates, although the viability of the new assembly, called the House of Representatives, remained uncertain.

The emergence of Haftars Operation Dignity had the effect of heightening polarization between Islamist-aligned and non-Islamist forces, pushing the country closer to a new civil war. In western Libya a coalition of armed groups opposed to Haftars Operation Dignity began to appear in mid-2014. Operating under the name Libya Dawn, the new coalition was largely Islamist in orientation, and it rejected the authority of the newly elected House of Representatives in favour of the outgoing GNC. In August, with the backing of Libya Dawn militias, members of the GNC convened in Tripoli and declared themselves the legitimate national assembly of Libya. The House of Representatives, meanwhile, convened in the eastern city of Tobruk under the protection of Haftars troops.

The absence of central authority in Libya created an opening there for the militant extremist group Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Fighters from the groups core territories in Iraq and Syria began to arrive in early 2014, and by the summer of 2015 the group had taken control of the central coastal city of Surt. In 2016 a coalition of western militias confronted ISIL with the help of U.S. air support, dislodging them from Surt and the surrounding area. ISIL fighters remained active, though, operating scattered small desert camps and staging occasional attacks.

In December 2015, delegates from Libyas rival factions signed a UN-brokered power-sharing agreement in Skhirat, Morocco, establishing a Government of National Accord (GNA), headed by a prime minister and a nine-member presidency council drawn from constituencies and factions throughout the country. Although the GNA received recognition from the UN Security Council as the legitimate government of Libya, it struggled to consolidate its authority in both the eastern and western halves of the country. In the east the House of Representatives, aligned with the forces of General Haftar, refused to endorse the GNAs proposed ministerial appointments, and in the west the GNA met with resistance from GNC-associated factions.

In September 2017 the UN Support Mission in Libya announced an effort to amend the 2015 agreement, with the goal of creating a workable arrangement for sharing power between the opposing factions. By the end of the year, though, prospects for an agreement looked dim, especially after Haftar gave a speech in December in which he dismissed the legitimacy of the GNA and hinted that he would seek the Libyan presidency for himself.

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Libya - History | Britannica.com

Geography

Libya stretches along the northeast coast of Africa between Tunisia and Algeria on the west and Egypt on the east; to the south are the Sudan, Chad, and Niger. It is one-sixth larger than Alaska. Much of the country lies within the Sahara. Along the Mediterranean coast and farther inland is arable plateau land.

Military dictatorship.

The first inhabitants of Libya were Berber tribes. In the 7th century B.C., Phoenicians colonized the eastern section of Libya, called Cyrenaica, and Greeks colonized the western portion, called Tripolitania. Tripolitania was for a time under Carthaginian control. It became part of the Roman Empire from 46 B.C. to A.D. 436, after which it was sacked by the Vandals. Cyrenaica belonged to the Roman Empire from the 1st century B.C. until its decline, after which it was invaded by Arab forces in 642. Beginning in the 16th century, both Tripolitania and Cyrenaica nominally became part of the Ottoman Empire.

Tripolitania was one of the outposts for the Barbary pirates who raided Mediterranean merchant ships or required them to pay tribute. In 1801, the pasha of Tripoli raised the price of tribute, which led to the Tripolitan war with the United States. When the peace treaty was signed on June 4, 1805, U.S. ships no longer had to pay tribute to Tripoli.

Following the outbreak of hostilities between Italy and Turkey in 1911, Italian troops occupied Tripoli. Libyans continued to fight the Italians until 1914, by which time Italy controlled most of the land. Italy formally united Tripolitania and Cyrenaica in 1934 as the colony of Libya.

Libya was the scene of much desert fighting during World War II. After the fall of Tripoli on Jan. 23, 1943, it came under Allied administration. In 1949, the UN voted that Libya should become independent, and in 1951 it became the United Kingdom of Libya. Oil was discovered in the impoverished country in 1958 and eventually transformed its economy.

On Sept. 1, 1969, 27-year-old Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi deposed the king and revolutionized the country, making it a pro-Arabic, anti-Western, Islamic republic with socialist leanings. It was also rabidly anti-Israeli. A notorious firebrand, Qaddafi aligned himself with dictators, such as Uganda's Idi Amin, and fostered anti-Western terrorism.

On Aug. 19, 1981, two U.S. Navy F-14s shot down two Soviet-made SU-22s of the Libyan air force that had attacked them in air space above the Gulf of Sidra. On March 24, 1986, U.S. and Libyan forces skirmished in the Gulf of Sidra, and two Libyan patrol boats were sunk. Qaddafi's troops also supported rebels in Chad but suffered major military reverses in 1987. A two-year-old U.S. covert policy to destabilize the Libyan government ended in failure in Dec. 1990.

On Dec. 21, 1988, a Boeing 747 exploded in flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, the result of a terrorist bomb, killing all 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground. This and other acts of terrorism, including the bombing of a Berlin discotheque in 1986 and the downing of a French UTA airliner in 1989 that killed 170, turned Libya into a pariah in the eyes of the West. Two Libyan intelligence agents were indicted in the Lockerbie bombing, but Qaddafi refused to hand them over, leading to UN-approved trade and air traffic embargoes in 1992. In 1999, Libya finally surrendered the two men, who were tried in the Netherlands in 20002001. One was found guilty of mass murder; the other defendant was found innocent. Libya had hoped its fainthearted cooperation would lead to suspended sanctions, which had severely affected the Libyan economy. The UN did suspend its sanctions, but they were not formally removed for another four years, not until Sept. 2003, when Libya finally admitted its guilt in the Lockerbie bombing and agreed to pay $2.7 billion to the victims' families. In 2004, Libya also agreed to compensate the families of the victims of the UTA airliner bombing ($170 million) and the Berlin disco bombing ($35 million).

After months of secret talks with the U.S. and Britain, Qaddafi surprised the world in Dec. 2003 by announcing he would give up the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and submit to full UN weapons inspections. After inspections at four secret sites, the International Atomic Energy Agency concluded that Libya's progress on a nuclear bomb had been in the very nascent stages. In May 2006, the U.S. announced it would restore full diplomatic relations with Libya after a 25-year hiatus.

In Dec. 2006, five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor working in Libya were sentenced to death after being convicted of infecting hundreds of Libyan children with AIDS. The evidence used to convict the medical workers is considered highly specious, and many believe that Libya is attempting to deflect the blame for the 1998 outbreak of AIDS in a Libyan hospital. In July 2007, Libya's Supreme Court upheld the death sentences. Days later, however, the country's High Judicial Council commuted the sentences. On the same day as the commutations, the government agreed to pay $1 million to the families of each of the 460 victims.

Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the Libyan terrorist convicted of bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, was freed from prison on compassionate grounds by Scotland in August 2009. (He is suffering from terminal prostate cancer.) His return to a hero's welcome provoked outrage from victims' families, and the White House opposed this decision, stating that Megrahi should finish his sentence in Scotland.

Anti-government demonstrations gripped several countries in the Middle East in early 2011, and protests in Libya followed those in Egypt, Tunisia, and Bahrain. The crackdown by the government in Libya, however, was the most vicious. The protesters took to the streets on Feb. 16 in Benghazi, the country's second-largest city, demanding that Qaddafi step down. The next day, declared the Day of Rage, saw the number of demonstrations burgeon throughout the country. Security forces began firing on protesters, and by Feb. 20 Human Rights Watch estimated that as many as 200 people had been killed by troops. Several government officials and diplomats defected, and members of the military joined the ranks of the opposition as the government attacks on civilians grew increasingly brutal. Some reports had fatalities numbering near 1,000 or more. Qaddafi refused to resign, but offered to double the salaries of public workers and freed some Islamic militants from jail. Protesters dismissed the move as a hollow gesture and continued their actions throughout the country. Qaddafi enlisted the help of mercenaries as the number of defections by troops swelled. He cast blame for the uprising on the West, which he claimed wants to assume control of Libya's oil, and Islamic radicals who want to expand their base.

On Feb. 27, the UN Security Council voted to impose sanctions on Qaddafi and several of his close advisers. The sanctions included an arms embargo on Libya, a travel ban on Qaddafi and other leaders, and the freezing of Qaddafi's assets. The Security Council also requested that the International Criminal Court investigate reports of "widespread and systemic attacks" on citizens. The UN sanctions followed unilateral action by the U.S., and the European Union also sanctioned Libya. By Feb. 28, rebels had taken control of Benghazi and Misurata and were closing in on Tripoli. The rebels organized a military and formed an executive committee, the Transitional National Council, illustrating that they could establish a transitional government if given the opportunity. The Libyan Air Force and security forces, however, attacked the rebels from both the air and the ground, weakening the rebellion and wresting control of rebel-held towns, including Zawiya and Zuwara, cities west of Tripoli, and Ajdabiya in the east. The rebels fought on, clinging to the rebel strongholdand capitalof Benghazi, but Qaddafi's forces continued their march toward the city, attacking from both the ground and the air. The rebels, outnumbered, poorly armed, and inexperienced, seemed on the brink of defeat.

As the assault on rebel areas by Qaddafi's troops intensified, the Arab League turned to the international community for assistance. On March 17, the UN Security Council approved a resolution that authorized military action against Libya, including air strikes, missile attacks, and a no-fly zone, and two days later, Britain and France led a military action against Libya, launching attacks from the air and sea on Libya's air defenses. The U.S. participated in the action, but did not initiate it. Qaddafi railed against the intervention, calling it "a colonial crusader aggression that may ignite another large-scale crusader war." By March 21, the mission to implement a no-fly zone over Libya and cripple its air defenses was considered a success. In early April, two of Qaddafi's sons, Seif and Saadi, put forth a proposal in which their father would step down and allow the country to transition toward a constitutional democracy. The move would be managed by Seif. The rebels rejected the offer, and Qaddafi never fully endorsed the plan.

NATO took over control of the air strikes, which continued for weeks, and by May the rebels gained ground and momentum in cities in both the east and west of the country. Qaddafi refused to participate in talks mediated by South African president Jacob Zuma. In June, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Qaddafi, his son, Saif al-Islam, and his intelligence chief, Abdulla al-Senussi. They were charged crimes against humanity for the attacks on civilians in the first two weeks of the revolt.

In July, the U.S. and 30 other countries officially recognized the Transitional National Council (TNC) as Libya's government and gave the council access to the $30 billion in Libyan assests that had been frozen by the U.S. Later in the month, the council's military leader, Gen. Abdul Fattah Younes, was killed by fellow rebel soldiers. Younes, a former interior minister under Qaddafi, never gained the trust of the rebel movement and some questioned his loyalty.

In August 2011, rebel fighters opposing Qaddafi made progress on several fronts. They seized Zawiyah and gained control of the city's oil refinery. Zawiyah, a port city just 31 miles west of Tripoli, was a key gain. Rebel forces soon advanced into Tripoli and foreigners tried to flee the city. On August 21, with the rebels meeting little resistance from loyalists, residents in Tripoli took to the streets to celebrate the end of Qaddafi's 42 years in power. Two days later, rebels seized Qaddafi's compound. Qaddafi and his family fled and remained at large. Mustafa Abdul Jalil, the chairman of the TNC and Qaddafi's former justice minister, became the country's leader and the rebels began transferring their administration from Benghazi to Tripoli.

Rebels continued to make gains in loyalist strongholds throughout the country into the fall. By October, they had advanced on Surt, Qaddafi's hometown, and captured Bani Walid. The fight for Surt proved to be more challenging for the rebels, with loyalist forces fiercely committed to maintaining control of the city. Both sides suffered significant casualties. On October 20, 2011, the interim government of Libya announced that Qaddafi had been killed by rebel troops in Surt. Initial reports were unclear on the cause of death.

With Qaddafi dead, the interim government could turn its attention to rebuilding the country and setting the stage for elections. The role and influence of Islamists in government and day-to-day life were unknowns for the future of Libya. During the turmoil in Libya, the Islamists became a powerful force in the country. At the very least, they are poised to form a political party, and Islamist leaders signaled that they would participate in the democratic process. In addition, it remained unclear how the many rivalaries in the countryIslamists vs secularist, geographic, inter-tribe, and between the educated elite and tribal populationwill affect the political climate in the country. At the same time, there was growing concern about the increased activity of militant groups.

At the end of October 2011, the Transitional National Council elected Abdurrahim al-Keeb, an engineer and opponent of Qaddafi, as interim prime minister. In July 2012, Libyans voted in its first national election since Col. Muammar Qaddafi was ousted. The National Forces Alliance, a secular party led by Mahmoud Jibril, a Western-educated political scientist, prevailed over Islamist parties, including the Muslim Brotherhood, in the election to form a national congress. The win by the National Forces Alliance is a sign that Libya, unlike Egypt and Tunisia, is not trending toward Islamist rule. Turnout was over 60%, and international observers declared the election largely fair, despite reports of election-related violence. In August, the Transitional National Council handed power to the newly elected General National Congress, a 200-seat body. Mohammed Magarief, a longtime opposition leader and head of the National Front Party, was elected chairman of the Congress and thus Libya's head of state. In September, Mustafa Abu Shagur, deputy prime minister, prevailed over Jibril in the second round of voting by the Congress to become prime minister.

On Sept. 11, 2012, militants armed with anti-aircraft weapons and rocket-propelled grenades fired on the American consulate in Benghazi, killing U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other embassy officials. Stevens was a widely praised diplomat and an advocate for the opposition in Libya, and had helped the new government in its transition to power. He was the first U.S. ambassador to be killed in the line of duty since 1979.

The attack coincided with protests at the U.S. embassy in Cairo over the release of a crude YouTube film, Innocence of Muslims, that insulted the Prophet Muhammad and criticized Islam. U.S. officials initially said the attack was also in response to the video, but later said they believed that the militant group Ansar al-Shariah orchestrated the attack. The Obama administration was criticized for the lack of security at the consulate that left diplomats vulnerable and for not immediately acknowledging it was a premeditated terrorist attack. During the 2012 U.S. presidential campaign, Republican nominee Mitt Romney repeatedly accused Obama of releasing misleading statements to downplay the role terrorists played in the attack. Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the UN, was also drawn into the controversy. After the presidential election Republicans in the U.S. Senate threatened to derail her potential nomination as secretary of state because, they claimed, in the days following the attack Rice said it was a spontaneous reaction to the release of Innocence of Muslims, rather than a terrorist attack. Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, defended Rice, saying she was relaying the notes she received from the CIA. However, Rice withdrew herself for consideration in December.

Clinton appointed an independent panel to investigate the attack, and in its highly critical report, the panel said the U.S. State Department failed to provide adequate security at the American Embassy in Tripoli and the consulate in Benghazi, overly relied on local militias for security, and did not fulfill requests for safety improvements at the compounds. It also cited "systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels." The report listed 29 recommended actions and improvements, and Clinton said she would act on all of them. Several State Department officials resigned after the release of the report.

The Libyan government condemned the attack and vowed to track down the perpetrators, though it proved too weak and ineffectual to do so. Indeed, the attack proved how little control the government has over the country's disparate militias, which act as the country's police yet operate independently of each other and the government. Ten days after the attack, several thousand Libyan citizens descended upon several militia headquarters and demanded that the government break up the groups. President Mohamed Magariaf rejected the demandan acknowledgement of the important role the militias play in the country's security. In mid-October the Libyan government said Ansar al-Sharia leader Ahmed Abu Khattala organized the attack. However, it did not detain the suspect.

In October 2012, the National Congress fired recently elected prime minister Mustafa Abushagur, citing its disapproval with the government he assembled. Ali Zeidan, a career diplomat who served under Qaddafi before going into exile, was then elected prime minister. Zeidan prevailed over an Islamist candidate. The political upheaval further illustrated the weakness of the fledgling government.

The New York Times reported in December that the Obama administration privately approved to transfer of weapons from Qatar to Libyan rebels in 2011, but later expressed concern that the arms ended up in the hands of Islamic militants. The concern gained urgency as the civil war intensified in Syria and the Obama administration mulled arming rebels in that country.

The National Congress passed a broad law in May 2013 that bans from taking public office anyone who served in a senior position under Qaddafi between 1969 and 2011. As written, the law threatens the standing of several current elected officials, including congress chairman Mohammed Magarief and Prime Minister Ali Zeidan. Secular opposition leader Mahmoud Jibril is also vulnerable under the new law. Magarief resigned weeks after the law passed, and his deputy, Giuma Attaiga, became acting chairman of the General National Congress. In June Congress elected Nouri Abusahmen as chairman. An independent member of Parliament, Abusahmen is a Berber, a minority group that suffered discrimination under Qaddafi.

By September 2013, Libya had deteriorated economically and politically. Oil production dropped from about 1.6 million barrels per day before the civil war to 150,000, costing the country about $5 billion in revenue from exports. Strikes were mainly responsible for the reduction. Prime Minister Zeidan came under fire for failing to stem tribal fighting. In addition, the government lacked a reliable armed force, making Zeidan dependent on militias for security. These militias exploited the situation for their own gain. The country's top cleric, Mufti al-Sadiq al-Ghiryani, called on Zeidan to resign.

U.S. commandoes captured Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, a high-ranking al-Qaeda operative who is known as Abu Anas al-Libi, in Tripol in early October 2013. He was indicted in New York in 2000 for helping to plan the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. U.S. authorities had been pursuing Abu Anas for about 15 years. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said "the Libyan government was aware of the operation." However, Prime Minister Zeidan denied that he had any prior knowledge of the raid. Days after the abduction of Abu Anas, members of a militia that has served as a government security force kidnapped Zeidan, presumably in retaliation for allowing the U.S. operation. He was held for several hours before being released. The incident revealed the increasing fragility of the country.

In July 2013, the Cyrenaica Political Bureau, a militia led by Ibrahim Jathran, began a blockade of Libya's major oil ports and demanded expanded autonomy for Cyrenaica, a province in eastern Libya, and a greater share in oil revenues. The government did little to end the blockade, despite the loss of oil revenuethe lifeblood of Libya's economy. In March 2014, the group loaded a tanker with 234,000 barrels of crude oil (valued at about $30 million) to sell on the black market. Prime Minister Zeidan said the move was an act of piracy and threatened to blow up the ship. The militants, however, defied the threats and the tanker left the port. Parliament voted to dismiss Zeidan, citing his weakness and inability to control the militia. Abdullah al-Thinni was named interim prime minister. U.S. Navy SEALS raided the ship days later and captured three Libyans said by crew members to be hijackers. The ship was set to return to Libya. The raid was a major setback to Jathran's militia.

In May, former general Khalifa Heftar organized a group of anti-Islamist nationalists, calling it the Libyan National Army, and led a campaign against a coalition of Islamic militias, Libya Dawn, in eastern Libya that he said had thrown Libya into disarray. Fighting continued for several weeks, and Heftar gained the support of the country's military. Heftar served under Qaddafi but split from him in the 1980s. He also accused Prime Minister Maiteg of being under the sway of the Islamic militias.

Libya's transitional Parliament elected Ahmed Maitiq, a prominent businessman from Misurata, as prime minister in May 2014. The Supreme Court, however, ruled that the election was unconstitutional, and he resigned. Thinni remained in office as interim prime minister.

Parliamentary elections were held in late June 2014, and because the populace had largely lost confidence in government as militias continued to yield tremendous power, turnout and interest in the race were low. In light of the violence between rival militias in Tripoli, the new Parliament convened in the eastern city of Tobruk, which is controlled by Heftar. However, many of the Islamist MPs refused to attend. Members of the former Parliament, which is the preferred body of the Islamists, reconvened in Tripoli and on Aug. 25 appointed Omar al-Hassi as prime minister, further complicating the political landscape. Heftar's government is recognized by the majority of the international community.

Violence between Libya Dawn and Heftar's fighters intensified in Tripoli during the summer of 2014. In July, they battled for control of the city's international airport, and the barrage of shelling threatened the U.S. embassy, forcing the U.S. to evacuate embassy staff. Most other nations also withdrew their embassy personnel. After a month of fighting, Libya Dawn won control of the airport, and Heftar's troops fled Tripoli. Egypt and the United Arab Emirates launched airstrikes on the Islamic militias in Tripoli several times in late August. Neither nation informed the U.S. about the attacks, and U.S. officials were reportedly irate that they were kept in the dark. The ongoing violence illustrated that any hope of stability in Libya was quickly fading, and the threat of civil war loomed. In early September, the government acknowledged that Libay Dawn controlled government ministries in Tripoli. By October, some 100,000 people fled the Tripoli area. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made a surprise visit to Libya in October to try to broker peace between the groups. His efforts bore little fruit. The fighting escalated at end of 2014, with the government launching airstrikes on Misrata, which is under the control of Libya Dawn.

The instability was blamed for an influx of refugees into Italy from Libya. More than 5,300 Libyans arrived in Italy during the first six weeks of 2015, a 60% increase over 2014.

The rival militias agreed to a UN-brokered cease-fire in January 2015. The vaguely worded truce left ample room for interpretation and doubts that it would hold.

U.S. special operations troops captured Ahmed Abu Khattala in a secret raid in Benghazi on June 15, 2014. He is believed to be the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. consulate that killed four Americans, including U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens. In July 2014, the U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia charged Abu Khattala and several others with the felony counts of "killing a person in the course of an attack on a federal facility involving use of a firearm," providing "material support to terrorists resulting in a death," and possessing a firearm during a crime. He pleaded not guilty to the charges in July.

As Libya's stability continued to deteriorate, at least three militant groups, one in each of Libya's three regions, pledged allegiance to ISIS. In February 2015, a group of the militants aligned with ISIS beheaded 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians who had been kidnapped from Sirte. Egypt responded by launching airstrikes on weapons depots in Derna, a militant stronghold in eastern Libya. In May, ISIS militants shot or beheaded at least 20 Ethiopian migrant workers, most of whom are believed to be Christian.

About 1,800 migrants fleeing countries in North Africa died in the Mediterranean Sea, many off the coast of Libya, during the summer of 2015. The migrants were hoping to reach Europe. European countries struggled to deal with the influx of hundreds of thousands of migrants during the crisis.

A court in Tripoli sentenced Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, a son of the former dictator, in absentia to death for his role in the violence against protesters during the 2011 uprising. Eight others, including former head of intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi, received the same sentence. The sentence will not be carried out because the officials are being held by a militia in the town of Zintan. The militia has refused to release them into government custody.

See also Encyclopedia: Libya .U.S. State Dept. Country Notes: Libya

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Geography,Government,History,Libya - InfoPlease

Outlook

The outlook hinges on the assumption that the Libyas House of Representatives will endorse a new government of national accord by the end of 2016, which will be able to start restoring security and launching programs to rebuild the economic and social infrastructures, especially oil facilities and terminals. In the baseline scenario, production of oil is projected to progressively improve to around 0.6 million bpd by end-2017. On this basis, GDP is projected to increase 28%. However, the twin deficits will remain as revenues from oil and will not be sufficient to cover budget expenditures and consumption-driven imports. This should keep the budget deficit at about 35% of GDP and the current account deficit at 28% of GDP in 2017. However, downside risks to this scenario remain high as the political uncertainties may prevail.

Over the medium term, it is expected that oil production will progressively increase without reaching full capacity before 2020 due to the time necessary to restore the heavily damaged oil infrastructure. In this context, growth is projected to rebound at around 23% in 2018. Both the fiscal and current account balances will significantly improve, with the budget and the balance of payments running surpluses expected from 2020 onwards. Foreign reserves will average around US$26 billion during 2017-2019, representing the equivalent of 13 months of imports.

Unless immediate and target action is taken to address the humanitarian crisis, the situation is unlikely to improve. The situation in Libya is such that simply relying on a slightly improved macro outlook is unlikely to bring about significant change. The country needs humanitarian aid and specific programs to address the destruction and lack of basic services that a large part of the population faces.

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Libyas Economic Outlook- October 2016 - World Bank

This has been much of Libya's curse since the 2011 unseating of Moammar Gadhafi, but the past week has been a particularly ghastly episode. Militias holding parts of the capital, Tripoli -- who are technically loyal to the United Nations-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) -- have been attacked by another armed group known as the 7th Brigade, from Tarhouna, to the capital's southeast. All sides accuse the other of corruption, and maintain their grip will restore order.

Yet the opposite is obviously proving the case. Militias have been fighting or squabbling, often at a slow-burn rate, for control of parts of the city for years. The distant thump of explosions or intermittent gunfire is far from abnormal across the city's skyline. But this uptick has led the GNA to denounce the fighting -- among militias that are technically loyal to it -- and declare a state of emergency.

Ongoing clashes have left at least 47 people dead and more than 140 wounded, a Libyan ambulance official told CNN. Prisoners broke out of a jail during the unrest on Sunday, with local media reporting 400 had escaped, although a GNA official claimed it was just dozens.

Yet this is a smaller part of the wider problem. Nationwide, Libya is split yet again. In the east, General Khalifa Haftar, who decades ago helped Gadhafi's original coup, has consolidated control around the city of Benghazi. Another militia, the Misrata Brigades, dominate a port to Benghazi's west.

There are further fiefdoms around the oil-rich nation -- Libya has been reduced by the ongoing violence to an economic slump, and people queue for hours outside banks for the most basic of services.

To add to that, ISIS fighters -- who gained substantial control around the town of Sirte and along Libya's massive Mediterranean coastline until a 2015 offensive against them -- remain a threat. Only last week, a US airstrike killed an ISIS militant near Bani Walid, the US military said.

In Tripoli, the GNA's path has been far from straightforward. It first arrived as something of a UN and Western-backed implant, and found itself often restricted to its base in the port. It has since grown in power, and the Libya Dawn faction that formerly controlled much of the capital has stepped back. Yet some of Dawn's loyalists are said to be assisting the 7th Brigade's offensive. That old rivalry, too, persists.

If you have kept up, then you may understand the scale of the challenge ahead for UN negotiators as they seek calm, or even a short-term peace. None of this complexity softens the agony for Libya's people, who have seen their oil-rich dictatorship flounder as the revolution brought the warring rule of the gun rather than a simple switch to elected leaders. Or the plight of the thousands of migrants, who risked all in Africa's deserts to reach the coastline, but now languish in Libya's jails.

Nor does it improve the confidence of European leaders who depend upon Libya's government -- and its coastguard -- to stop the migrant trade across the Mediterranean.

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Libya: Week of chaos a reminder that the country's still ...

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Hundreds of migrants have been relocated from government-run detention centers in Libya after being trapped by clashes between rival groups, U.N. and aid sources said on Thursday.

A migrant is seen in a shelter after she was relocated from a government-run detention center, after getting trapped by clashes between rival groups in Tripoli, Libya August 30, 2018. REUTERS/Hani Amara

The migrants were abandoned when their guards fled from the fighting, which killed almost 30 people. It pitted rival groups vying for power and state funds, a recurring theme in Libya since the chaotic overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in a 2011 NATO-backed uprising.

The migrants were taken to a safer place from two centers run by the U.N.-backed government in the Ain Zara area in southeastern Tripoli, aid workers said.

The U.N refugee agency UNHCR said in a statement it facilitated the transport in coordination with other agencies and the Department for Combatting Illegal Migration (DCIM).

The migrants, mainly Eritreans, Ethiopians and Somalis, were taken to a separate detention center away from the fighting. A few were still waiting to evacuate from Ain Zara, an official at another international organization said.

Libya is the main departure point in North Africa for migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, mainly from other parts of Africa.

The number of crossings has fallen off sharply since Italy provided the coastguard with more boats and brokered deals with local groups in a smuggler hub last year.

A total of 27 people have been killed and 91 wounded, mostly civilians, since the outbreak of the fighting, the health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

Tripoli-based Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj said there was still fighting in southern Tripoli where residents have been trapped inside their homes.

Tripoli is formally controlled by the internationally recognized Government of National Accord, but armed groups working with it act with autonomy. Eastern Libya is controlled by a rival administration.

Reporting by Ahmed Elumami, Hani Amara and Ulf Laessing; Editing by Andrew Bolton

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Libya evacuates migrants trapped by fighting, with U.N. help ...