Libya's Tripoli-based unity government and the eastern-based rival forces carried out a prisoner swap, involving the release of a pilot captured during putschist Gen. Khalifa Haftar's 2019 offensive on the capital Tripoli.
According to reports and images on social media, pilot Amer al-Orfi al-Gajam was exchanged for 15 prisoners held by Haftar's forces, which back a rival government and control much of eastern and southern Libya.
The exchange took place in a Haftar-controlled part of the Jufra region, near a cease-fire line between eastern and western forces.
Images on social media appeared to show Gajam, a high-ranking member of Haftar's forces, with a long beard and dressed in a traditional Libyan tunic and vest.
Once a lieutenant to Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, Haftar defected to the U.S. during the 1980s and spent years in northern Virginia, where he and his family continue to own extensive property, according to lawsuits. He is widely believed to have worked with the CIA during his time in exile.
He returned to Libya to support anti-Gadhafi forces that revolted against the dictator and killed him in 2011. Over the last decade, he led the militia, which has controlled much of the eastern half of the country, with support from countries including Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
Haftar had waged a year-long assault on Tripoli, leaving thousands dead, before reaching a formal cease-fire with his western opponents in October last year.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) reported that the failed offensive by Haftar on the capital Tripoli involved a pattern of violence and use of mines by retreating forces that harmed civilians, which is a war crime when used indiscriminately.
A U.N.-supported government has controlled the capital in Tripoli, with extensive support from Türkiye. A cease-fire between the warring sides in 2020 was supposed to lead to elections in December 2021, which never occurred. Negotiations to set a new election date ended last month without success.
