US News

Tough transition ahead for well-armed factions

With the fall of Moammar Khadafy, the big question is whether the National Transitional Council can solidify control or if various factions — all armed to the teeth — will take to fighting among themselves.

“Khadafy is now a martyr and thus can become the rallying point for irredentist or tribal violence — perhaps not in the immediate future but in the medium to long term,” said George Joffe, a North Africa expert at the UK’s University of Cambridge.

There are also worries over conflicts between hard-line Islamists and secularists over the country’s direction.

PHOTOS: MOAMMAR KHADAFY

VIDEO: KHADAFY’S CAPTURE

“I don’t think Libya is heading for anything like we saw in Iraq,” a senior intelligence official told The Washington Post but added that the borders of the country could change based on demographics.

Continued fighting could cause an exodus of more refugees to Europe and to neighboring nations Algeria, itself still gripped with popular protests, and Egypt, which is trying to form its own government after ousting President Hosni Mubarak.

The rebel victory may inspire the ongoing resistance to Bashar al-Assad in Syria and Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen, but those insurgents lack NATO air support and intelligence.

Israel may not have anything to gain, even though their foe in Khadafy was vanquished because the Libyan rebels had rejected its overtures for assistance throughout the uprising.

But the US should take notice that a powerful voice in the National Transition Council is military commander Abdel Hakim Belhadj.

Belhadj, 45, fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan and later led a resistance movement back home in Libya.

But he fled in the 1990s, hiding in Syria, Pakistan, Iran and again in Afghanistan, where he cultivated tied with the Taliban and al Qaeda, al-Jazeera reported.

In 2004, he was arrested by CIA operatives in Bangkok and handed over to Khadafy.

“When I was arrested, I was first subjected to barbaric treatment at the hands of CIA agents at Bangkok airport. The same treatment was given to my wife, who was pregnant at the time. Later, in Libya, I was subjected to many types of physical and mental torture,” he said.

With Post Wire Services

chuck.bennett@nypost.com