TRIPOLI, Libya — A former general who was a central figure in Libya’s revolution led a full-scale ground and air assault on several Islamist militia bases in and around the city of Benghazi on Friday, declaring war against the groups that have been accused of conducting a campaign of lawlessness and assassinations.
Two dozen people were reported killed in the fighting and dozens more wounded, according to news agencies.
The former general, Khalifa Heftar, seemed to be acting on his own initiative, but gained support from members of the army in eastern Libya. A column of personnel and armored vehicles moved against three militia bases around the city early Friday. Jet fighters from the Benghazi air base flew low over the city and helicopters fired on at least one militia position.
Libya’s caretaker prime minister, Abdullah al-Thinni, went on television to deny that the attack had been ordered by the central command. He added that the attack would hamper security efforts against terrorism.
Yet a spokesman for Mr. Heftar, Col. Mohammad al-Hejazi, said the force that had been gathered represented the “real national army.” He announced that the offensive was called Operation Karama, which means dignity, and said the command had been formed to combat growing terrorism in eastern Benghazi.
“We call it Karama to regain the dignity of the fatherland, because the fatherland has been hijacked by those militias,” he said. “We are sick of the situation caused by those foreign terrorists.”
Mr. Heftar, who holds no formal position in the Libyan armed forces, seemed to have some support from within the government. The culture minister, Al Habib al Amin, was reported to have said that the action involved “army officers and soldiers attacking the groups that had been assassinating them for months.”
Mr. Heftar, who defected from Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s army in the 1980s and moved to the United States, helped lead the rebel forces that overthrew Colonel Qaddafi in 2011. After the revolution, he retired from active service as militias took over responsibility for security.
In February, he went on television and threatened to take things into his own hands, complaining that the central government was doing nothing to stem the string of assassinations that have plagued eastern Libya, in particular Benghazi.
Former military and security personnel were being killed — in particular members of the special forces, who were the first army unit to defect from the Qaddafi government, as well as judges, foreign citizens and, increasingly, local leaders and police officers.
Islamist militias, which have grown even more powerful in the aftermath of the revolution, are widely suspected of being behind many of the killings.
Libyans sympathized with the former general at the time, despite his unorthodox remarks. Many criticized the central government for failing to stem the lawlessness and said that those in charge of the defense ministry favored the militias and allowed them to act with impunity.
“What chief of staff do you speak of?” Mr. Heftar’s spokesman asked. “We will not take orders from those who kill.”
A member of one of the largest militias, the February 17 Brigade, interviewed by telephone, said Mr. Heftar had no right to call his force the Libyan Army. “We serve under the chief of staff, and we are the real army,” he said.
Mr. Heftar’s forces attacked at least three bases in and around Benghazi, breaching the walls of one base, Rafalla Sehati, before pulling back. News agencies reported as many as 24 dead and 150 wounded.
The militia member, who requested anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the media, confirmed that a rocket had hit the February 17 base. He vowed retaliation against the air base from where the jets were flying. “A few more hours and we will get them in their air base,” he said, “because they are like crows and need their wings cut.”
