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Libya’s General Khalifa Haftar arrives in Jordan

April 13, 2015 at 2:46 pm

Libya’s Tobruk-backed army chief, Khalifa Haftar, arrived in Jordan on Sunday for a visit to the Hashemite kingdom. It is the first official foreign trip for the renegade general.

The visit comes at an invitation from Jordanian King Abdullah II, the Tobruk-run news agency reported.

A number of senior military officials loyal to Haftar accompanied him on his visit to Amman. They were officially received by counterparts in the Jordanian army.

Haftar, who previously served in the army under the late Muammar Gaddafi, was sworn in as army chief by the Tobruk-based parliament in February.

Libya has remained in a state of turmoil since a bloody uprising in 2011 ended Gaddafi’s longstanding tyrannical rule of the country.

In the intervening years, the country’s sharp political divisions have yielded two rival seats of government, each of which has its own institutions.

Vying for legislative authority are an internationally-recognised parliament based in the eastern city of Tobruk, and a parliament in the capital Tripoli.