TRIPOLI: Libya’s Interior Ministry, along with the country’s the UN ambassador and the commander of the air force, backed a renegade general’s offensive against conservative lawmakers and extremist militias, further building support Wednesday for a campaign the government has described as a coup.

The show of support for Gen. Khalifa Hiftar appears to have triggered a heavy backlash.

Libya’s navy chief Brig. Gen. Hassan Abu-Shanaq, some of whose units have allied with Hifter, was wounded in an assassination attempt in the capital, Tripoli, early Wednesday, along with his driver and a guard, the official news agency LANA said. The night before, the air forces headquarters in Tripoli came under a rocket attack but no casualties were reported.

Hiftar has been leading an armed revolt in perhaps the biggest challenge yet to the country’s weak central government and fledgling security forces. He says his campaign, dubbed “Operation Dignity,” aims to break the power of radicals who lead Parliament and whom he accuses of opening the door to extremism and fueling chaos.

Scores of Libyan military units and commanders have made already made loyalty pledges to Hifter’s “Libyan National Army” and his offensive, which began Friday, first against militias in the eastern city of Benghazi. A number of powerful militias also back Hifter, including ones from the western city of Zintan and Benghazi.

Wednesday’s declaration of support for Hiftar from the Interior Ministry, in charge of police, appeared to signal a fragmenting in the interim government installed this year by Parliament. In a statement posted on its Facebook page, the ministry called on all its forces to join “Operation Dignity,” calling it “the will of the people.”