Libya’s intelligence chief for eastern-based forces assassinated: Official

Maj. Gen. Fawzi al-Mansouri, the head of the military intelligence department for Libya's eastern-based forces led by Khalifa Haftar, was killed Monday in a targeted assassination, said a Libyan security official.

The official, speaking to Anadolu on condition of anonymity, said an improvised explosive device (IED) planted under Mansouri’s vehicle detonated as he was getting into the car outside his home in the al-Sayyida Aisha residential neighborhood in eastern Benghazi.

The official described the incident as a “terrorist attack.”

No official statement has been issued so far on the killing.

Mansouri had served as commander of the Sabha Military Zone since Aug. 3, 2021 and was appointed head of the Military Intelligence Department by Haftar on May 20, 2024.

Libya remains divided between two rival governments: the internationally recognized Government of National Unity headed by Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh and based in Tripoli which administers western Libya and a government appointed by the House of Representatives in early 2022 currently headed by Osama Hammad and based in Benghazi, which administers the east and most of the south.

For years, the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has sought to broker a political settlement leading to elections, which many Libyans hope will end the political divisions and armed conflict that have persisted since the 2011 ouster of Muammar Gaddafi.