Africa Intelligence website said the Libyan American Alliance, chaired by Esam Omeish, is gearing up to deal another legal blow against Khalifa Haftar and has appointed as legal counsel for the plaintiffs lawyer Miya Griggs, who is close to the group.

The French website added that the plaintiffs are suing Haftar in the US state of Virginia and are seeking millions of dollars over a January 2020 attack on a military academy in Tripoli.

It said that alongside Ashraf Wajih Nubani, Griggs is representing three relatives of people who died on 4 January 2020 in a bombing raid on the military academy in Tripoli, when the capital was under siege by Haftar’s forces.

“The plaintiffs – Othman Bin Amara, Anas Al-Tayra and Miftah Al-Haris – are seeking $10m in compensatory damages and $10m in punitive damages for extrajudicial killings and torture. The case will be heard in the States by Judge Rossie David Alston Jr. whom then president Donald Trump appointed in in June 2019.” Africa Intelligence added.

It also indicated that the new proceedings, which were launched on 15 September, came two months after Haftar was ordered to pay damages to relatives of victims in three other cases in which he was accused of war crimes. All proceedings were adjudicated in Virginia, where Haftar – who has US citizenship – owns homes and businesses.