Haftar’s son forces children to fight in Libya’s civil war: footage

The son of Khalifa Haftar, commander of Libya’s National Force, is recruiting child soldiers in an attempt to capture the city of Tripoli, according to a report by the Middle East Eye.

According to footage released by the London-based publication, Khaled Haftar recruited boys under the age of 18, telling them they would be participating in a military parade.

The footage shows eight captured youth being questioned about the circumstances under which they were recruited to take up arms in the army of Haftar.

One youth recounted how he was threatened by the military police if he refused to join Haftar’s forces, while another stated he was duped into attending a so-called military parade. Both youth stated that they weren’t given any arms at the time of their recruitment.

Libya has been riven by violence since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The eastern Libyan National Army under Khalifa Haftar has been trying to take Tripoli from forces allied to the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), but the LNA offensive has bogged down on the capital's outskirts.

Since early April, forces loyal to Haftar announced the launch of a campaign to capture Tripoli from GNA forces.

Haftar's forces swept up rapidly from the south but have been unable to advance beyond Tripoli's outskirts.

Clashes between the two sides since then have left more than 1,000 people dead and about 5,500 wounded, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).