Dreams of a stable North African democracy after the ouster and killing of Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi in October 2011 are going up in smoke.  A renegade general is fighting intense battles with Islamists trying to take control of the fragile government in Tripoli.

The Islamists attempted to appoint Ahmed Maiteeq as the nation’s third prime minister in four months.  But the Supreme Court says that done “illegally,” due to the absence of a quorum during the vote.  That appears to leave caretaker Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni in charge.  The justices put off a decision on who actually is in charge until Monday.

Al-Thinni is now reportedly in the oil-rich east of the country, in talks with military officers loyal to renegade general Khalifa Haftar, Gadhafi’s military chief of staff prior to the Arab Spring, and the general who staged an unsuccessful coup attempt in February.  For three weeks, his forces in Benghazi have battled Islamist militias that Haftar has labeled “terrorists”. 

Haftar took the fight against the Islamists into his own hands last month, launching what he called “Operation Restore Libyan Dignity”.  So far, it has claimed more than 100 lives.  Haftar himself avoided being assassinated in a car bomb attack that killed four people.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is mourning an official shot dead in Libya.  42-year old Michael Breub of Switzerland – an official who had worked in Iraq, Sudan, Yemen, and Gaza – was shot as he left a meeting with two colleagues in the Mediterranean Sea city of Sirte.

“We are devastated and outraged,” ICRC Director-General Yves Daccord said, “Michael was a devoted humanitarian who spent many years of his life helping others.”