Benghazi— The Libyan National Army’s (LNA) Commander-in-Chief Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar appoi nted Major General Abdel Salam Al-Hassi, as Assistant to the Chief of Staff of the Land Forces. Al-Hassi has been until Thursday working at the Special Forces, according to the spokesman of the Special Forces.
The current Chief of Staff of the Land Forces is Marshal Haftar’s son, Saddam.
In another move, Haftar appointed Colonel Engineer Fathallah Al-Shahibi as the head of the Special Forces Department, succeeding General Al-Hassi.
The changes may indicate some sort of reorganization at the top command of the LNA that brings the seasoned and experienced officers together with the young educated and dedicated military leaders.
Before his assignment to the Special Forces Department, General Al-Hassi was head of operations during the war in Tripoli (2019-2020) and the Dignity Operations Room during the war in Benghazi (2014-2017).
He was appointed as the coordinator of international relations in Darfur and commander of a peacekeeping force in the Sudanese region before 2011. Born in the city of Shahat in 1943, he graduated from the Military College with the rank of second lieutenant and joined the Special Forces in the early 1970s.