SUMMARY
Following the uprising against long-term dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya’s political and military institutions were in complete disarray. Factional and ideological differences prevented the formation of an effective and widely supported government, and revolutionary militias refusing to disarm established themselves as local and regional powerbrokers in many parts of the country. Capitalizing on the almost complete absence of functioning national security forces, a collection of militant Islamist groups gradually established control over Derna, a coastal town in eastern Libya; in December 2014, these groups coalesced into the Derna Mujahideen Shura Council, which then changed its name to DPF in mid-2018.
During the spring of 2014, the political turmoil in Libya exploded into factional fighting that eventually resulted in the creation of two rival governments: a Tripoli-based government (considered by the UCDP as the Government of Libya as it controlled the capital) called the “New” General National Congress (GNC), and an eastern-based government loyal to the House of Representatives (for more information, see Libya: Government). Parallel to its conflict with the Government of Libya, the House of Representatives also sought to strengthen its position in eastern Libya by removing rival armed groups controlling important towns, including Derna. Furthermore, the Derna Mujahideen Shura Council was closely allied to the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council, an anti-House of Representatives Islamist coalition in Benghazi.
The House of Representatives launched its first – albeit unsuccessful - attempt to capture Derna already in early 2015. However, the clashes between House of Representatives and the Derna Mujahideen Shura Council failed to reach the 25 battle-related deaths threshold that year. Furthermore, both the House of Representatives and Derna Mujahideen Shura Council became involved in fighting against the Islamic State (IS), which diverted the two groups’ attention away from each other. It was not until Derna Mujahideen Shura Council expelled IS from Derna in early 2016 that the House of Representatives initiated a large-scale operation to capture the town. In August 2016, House of Representatives forces – led by Brigadier Salem Rifadi – initiated a “siege” of Derna, intended to wrest it from the Derna Mujahideen Shura Council. In 2016 and 2017, the two groups mainly engaged in smaller skirmishes and sporadic clashes, causing relatively few deaths. However, the protracted siege had a disastrous effect on the living conditions of the civilian population inside Derna, as the House of Representatives’ blockade prevented supplies and other vital goods from entering the town. Furthermore, Derna was on several occasions hit by airstrikes that allegedly killed a large number of civilians. The circumstances surrounding these strikes were however unclear, with some sources attributing them to the Government of Egypt; rumors circulated that militants from the Egyptian group Jama’at Ansar al-Islam were hiding in Derna.
Following the House of Representatives’ complete capture of Benghazi in late 2017, Derna remained the only major town in eastern Libya not yet under its control. Consequently, on 7 May 2018, Khalifa Haftar – the House of Representatives’ top military commander – announced that the “zero hour” for the capture of Derna had arrived. House of Representatives forces – spearheaded by the Omar al-Mokhtar Operations Room – then initiated a large-scale attack against Derna, deploying superior fire- and manpower compared to those of the Derna Mujahideen Shura Council. The two groups engaged in fierce street fighting, as the House of Representatives, moved into neighborhoods controlled by the Derna mujahideen. In an apparent attempt to attract outside support, Ateyah Al-Shaari – the group’s top commander – announced on 11 May that the Derna Mujahideen Shura Council had been reorganized as the Derna Protection Force (DPF). It was suggested that this reorganization was an attempt to downplay the group’s Islamist orientation, which potentially could help it attract sympathies from other Libyan factions. Al-Shaari also announced that the DPF was willing to submit itself to the command of “Libyan army officers”, an apparent attempt to attract support from the Government of Libya in Tripoli; there was no indication that the Tripoli government acknowledged this offer.
The House of Representatives advanced further into Derna in June, and the increasingly pressured DPF forces responded by deploying suicide bombers. On 28 June, House of Representatives commander Khalifa Haftar announced that the battle of Derna was over, and that the DPF had been routed. However, much like his premature declaration of victory in the battle of Benghazi in 2017, Haftar declared victory in Derna before the fighting had ended. While DPF no longer controlled any significant territory in Derna, isolated cells continued to launch attacks and suicide bombings against House of Representatives forces.
The non-state conflict between DPF and the Forces of the House of Representatives is first included in UCDP data in 2016. In August of that year, clashes between the two groups had resulted in more than 25 battle-related deaths.
