Major-General Khalifa Hifter, a retired Libyan commander who has returned to the country, recently authorised airstrikes on a militant camp in Benghazi

French, American and Algerian special forces have been sent to the south of Libya to attack terrorist networks as a former general with links to the CIA fights Islamist militias in the lawless east of the country.

With the crisis deepening, Olivier Guitta, director of research at the Henry Jackson Society, a London-based think-tank, said that the special forces offensives were being conducted against al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim).

Of particular interest is Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a one-eyed Algerian militant believed to be responsible for killing foreign oilworkers in Algeria last year.

“Western nations are looking at Libya much more closely and are willing to intervene much deeper than ever before,” Mr Guitta said. “The issue of terrorism is huge and for the time-being they