- Lead. A car bomb killed Maj. Gen. Fawzi al-Mansouri, the head of military intelligence for Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA), outside his Benghazi home on August 10 — the highest-profile assassination of an LNA figure in years.
- Fact. On the same week, drone strikes hit the Zawiya refinery — Libya’s largest operating facility, processing roughly 120,000 barrels a day — and the central bank governor resigned, stripping the country of three pillars of authority simultaneously.
- Stake. The triple shock arrives just as Massad Boulos, the Trump administration’s senior adviser for Arab and African affairs, had been promoting an institutional reunification plan with energy-investment incentives for both Haftar’s eastern government and the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity.
A Killing in Hawari
The explosive device detonated as al-Mansouri entered his car in Benghazi’s Hawari district. He was buried the following day with senior LNA figures in attendance. Appointed director of military intelligence in 2024, al-Mansouri had overseen operations against jihadist groups and was a senior figure inside the Haftar security apparatus.
No group has claimed responsibility. Libyan Prime Minister Osama Saad Hammad called it “a treacherous terrorist act,” and the Government of National Unity in Tripoli condemned it as a “terrorist act” incompatible with Libya’s stated commitment to ending violence. A security investigation was opened but has produced no public findings.
Al Jazeera, reporting the assassination, noted that the killing underscored Libya’s continued fragility six years after the 2020 ceasefire formally ended large-scale hostilities between the LNA and Tripoli-aligned militias.
Energy Infrastructure Under Attack
Beginning August 9, multiple drones struck the Zawiya refinery complex in western Libya. On August 10, a strike hit a gasoline storage tank holding approximately 4.5 million litres, causing a major fire and the tank’s structural collapse. A follow-up strike on August 12 hit the South Zawiya electricity substation, knocking out more than 700 megawatts of generating capacity and triggering widespread blackouts.
Zawiya processes around 120,000 barrels per day and is the country’s most significant operating refinery. Its extended disruption would materially reduce Libya’s domestic fuel supply, which is already strained. No group claimed the drone attacks either, leaving open the question of whether the energy strikes and the intelligence-chief killing are connected or coincidental.
The American Plan and Its New Obstacle
Boulos has been courting both Haftar’s eastern authorities and the Government of National Unity in Tripoli with a reunification framework that pairs institutional integration with energy investment and economic development. The initiative depends on both sides perceiving sufficient security to make political concessions.
Analyst Misbah Omar observed: “What we are witnessing may represent an initial phase in restructuring Libya’s political landscape” aimed at consolidating influence ahead of any formal negotiation. The timing — a sudden security vacuum inside Haftar’s command structure, coinciding with attacks on the energy infrastructure that funds the eastern government — complicates that calculus significantly.
Libya remains split between the LNA-backed administration in Benghazi and the internationally recognised government in Tripoli. The central bank’s sudden governance gap adds a financial layer to the crisis, since the bank manages oil revenue distribution across both sides.