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The head of military intelligence for eastern Libya’s Libyan National Army (LNA) was assassinated late on August 10 in a car bomb blast.
Major General Fawzi al-Mansouri was killed after an improvised explosive device was detonated as he entered his car outside his home in Benghazi’s Hawari district.
Prime Minister of the eastern Libyan government Osama Saad Hammad condemned the killing and pledged to “uncover the circumstances of the crime”.
“We condemn, in the strongest terms, this treacherous terrorist act,” he said in a statement on August 11. “There is no place in Libya for anyone who raises arms against the state, and no cover for anyone who plans, executes, finances, or incites assassination and terrorism crimes.”
Al-Mansouri emerged as a prominent field commander within the LNA, led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, building his reputation through successive operational roles in the east and south after joining the 2014 Operation Dignity campaign against ISIS and other terrorist groups.
He first gained notice as head of the Ajdabiya operations room and later as commander of the strategically vital Gulf Military Zone, overseeing security across the Oil Crescent region that includes key facilities around Ajdabiya, Brega, Ras Lanuf and Sidra.
During the LNA’s 2019–2020 offensive on Tripoli he directed forces on the Ain Zara and Wadi al-Rabi fronts south of the capital.
In 2021 Haftar appointed him commander of the Sabha Military Zone, where he focused on border security, counter-smuggling and confronting armed groups in the south.
Later in 2024 he was elevated to director of the Military Intelligence Department within the LNA General Command and promoted to the rank of Major General, a post that placed him at the centre of the LNA’s internal security and counter-intelligence apparatus.
Al-Mansouri has also been linked to Libya’s Madkhali Salafist current, given his public praise for fighters motivated by religious conviction.
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Libya plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed armed uprising that toppled and killed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The country is now split between the LNA in the east and the rival Government of National Unity (GNU) based in the capital, Tripoli, in the west.
Notably, the assassination of al-Mansouri came amid a wave of drone attacks targeting oil facilities controlled by the GNU, namely the Zawiya oil refinery, in western Libya. These incidents may be a sign of a shadowy war between the two rivals, or the work of a third party attempting to incite a new conflict in the country.
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