On 11 February in the evening, Libyan National Army (LNA) troops, including Military Police and the 87th Rapid Reaction Battalion of the Special Forces (aligned with Saddam Haftar), arrived in al-Qatrun in the far south-west of Libya and demanded forces loyal to Chadian opposition leader Saleh Abdelkarim Habré hand over their weapons and withdraw from Libya. Some sources have claimed that this was an attempt by Saddam Haftar to forcibly disband the 128 Brigade, though there is no clear evidence of that.
On 12 February in the morning, fierce fighting broke out in al-Bukhari 10 km south of al-Qatrun after the Chadian rebels refused to withdraw and the LNA raided two HQs of the Chadians. In the night from 12-13 February, after very heavy fighting, the Chadian rebels were defeated and fled towards the south. At least 16 of them were taken prisoner by the LNA.
On 13 February, the General Command of the LNA announced the end of the operations in al-Qatrun. It mourned the death of eight of its soldiers killed during the operation. The Military Media Department of the LNA General Command reported that the operation, which came within the framework of an ongoing larger operation in the south to combat organized crime and terrorism, resulted in the destruction of the commercial facilities of terrorists and criminals and inflicted heavy losses on them.
Chadian media confirmed that rebel leader Saleh Abdelkarim Habré, the nephew of former Chadian President Hissène Habré (an ethnic Tebu) was behind the bloody clashes in al-Qatrun, which left 25 Chadian rebels killed and 22 wounded. Others are missing. Allegedly, the brother of Saleh Abdulkarim, Kori Habré, and several other leaders of the group were among those killed. Material losses were also significant, as 22 transport vehicles, some of them equipped with heavy weapons, were destroyed.
Government of National Stability (GNS) PM Osama Hammad offered his deepest condolences to the LNA and the families of those soldiers killed in the fighting in al-Qatrun and praised the efforts made by the LNA to protect southern Libya and cleanse it from ‘the clutches of terrorism, organized crime, and encroachment on Libyan sovereignty’. The Supreme Council of Sheikhs and Notables of Fezzan mourned in a statement ‘the martyrs of the armed forces who were martyred while fighting mercenaries, corruption, crime and smuggling in the south’.