When the militiamen abducted Abdul Ali al-Falus and his four sons last year, their family had every reason to fear the worst.

By then, the Kaniyat militia had killed scores and perhaps hundreds of civilians in this pastoral town, many of them shot multiple times at close range, often blindfolded, handcuffed and with legs tied, according to officials and community leaders. And no one had stopped the militiamen or held them to account.

Not Libya’s internationally recognized government, which was aligned with the Kaniyat until two years ago.

Not the renegade warlord Khalifa Hifter, who had then made common cause with the militia and used Tarhuna to launch an unsuccessful offensive against the capital, Tripoli.

Not the United Nations, which has been trying to prop up the government all these years