Battle of Benina Airport

Overview

The Battle of Benina Airport was a battle of the Second Libyan Civil War which lasted from August 2014 until October 2014 between the Islamic Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries supported by extremist fundamental groups such as Ansar al-Sharia, who attempted to capture the airport, and the Libyan National Army led by General Khalifa Haftar.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Battle of Benina Airport, fought from August to October 2014, was part of the broader contest for Benghazi during the Second Libyan Civil War. The Islamic Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries, backed by Ansar al-Sharia and other Islamist factions, attempted to seize the airport from the Libyan National Army under General Khalifa Haftar. Control of an airport represented a significant logistical and symbolic stake in the struggle for Benghazi, a city that became the central theater of the post-2014 conflict between Haftar's forces and Islamist-aligned militias. The LNA suffered recorded casualties of approximately 700, indicating the sustained intensity of the fighting despite fielding a substantially smaller force than the opposing coalition of roughly 16,000. The battle reflects the broader pattern of the civil war in which Haftar's Operation Dignity campaign faced determined resistance from a numerically superior but fragmented Islamist front across Benghazi's urban and infrastructure nodes.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (1)