Khalifa Hunaysh, commander of Qaddafi’s Security Battalion, sometimes called the “presidential guard”, has died of cancer in a Munich hospital.
A shadowy . . .[restrict]figure in the former dictatorship, Colonel Hunaysh was accused of being deeply involved in the assassinations in the early 1980s of Libyan opponents of the regime abroad. He was closely in almost all aspects of regime security and was responsible for Qaddafi’s personal protection.
In October 1993, he was responsible for quelling the Bani-Walid uprising in which a group of army officers from the Warfalla tribe attempted a coup. The town and tribe were subjected to brutal reprisals. Since the beginning of the 2000s, he was in charge of armaments procurement.
He was a member of Qaddafi’s tribe but was suspected of being involved in the death in November 1986 of his rival, Colonel Hassan Ishkal, commander of the central region and said to be a cousin of Qaddafi. [/restrict]
