TRIPOLI: Libya’s rival armed groups took position Tuesday for or against a renegade general’s campaign to rid the country of jihadists as Islamist leaders in parliament vowed not to cede power.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which forms the largest bloc in the 194-strong General National Congress, parliament, along with radical Islamists, rejected government calls for MPs to go into recess.

The GNC, Libya’s top political authority, has accused Khalifa Haftar, who led a deadly assault on Islamist militia in second city Benghazi last week, of attempting a coup.

But the former general has won widening support for his campaign, not only from militia groups but also from special forces of the regular army in Benghazi.

Islamist militia in both Benghazi and Tripoli vowed to resist any move against them by Haftar’s forces, whose militia allies stormed parliament at the weekend, forcing the venue for Tuesday’s meeting to move to a Tripoli hotel.

The Operations Cell of Libyan Revolutionaries — a powerful Islamist militia — pledged to defend the parliament by force if necessary.

In Benghazi, jihadist group Ansar Al-Sharia, blacklisted as a terrorist organization by Washington, vowed to resist any renewed assault by Haftar’s men on its positions in the eastern city.

The group charged that Haftar, who spent more than two decades in exile in the United States, was leading “a war against... Islam orchestrated by the United States and its Arab allies.”

Haftar’s forces pulled out of Benghazi after Friday’s clashes which killed at least 79 people.

But he said he will re-enter the city to cleanse it of “terrorists” and has won the support of special forces there who have suffered mounting losses to suspected jihadist attacks.

“A confrontation is now inevitable to defend our city and our land. We will act with force against anyone who enters the city or attacks it,” Ansar Al-Sharia said.

The group, which denies accusations it was behind a September 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi that killed ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, was put on the US terror blacklist in January.