Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

LNA: Syrian Fighters Hired for Libya, Flee to Europe


Sun 26 Jan 2020 | 03:45 PM
Yassmine Elsayed

A news report revealed that Syrian fighters hired by Turkey to fight alongside the Fayez Al-Sarraj government militias in Libya, fled towards Europe and others were on their way there.

In addition to the report published by the British-based "Investigative Journalism" website, the Libyan National Army said that in just 48 hours, 41 Syrian terrorists had fled to Italy through ports in Libya.

The army spokesman, Ahmed Al-Mismari, said that last December, Turkey had sent about 3,000 Syrian fighters to Libya to fight alongside the Al-Wefaq government. By January 20, the number of Syrian fighters, who managed to escape to Italy, increased to at least 47, according to Libyan National Army sources.

The Libyan National Army is fighting to take control of the capital, Tripoli, and liberate it from the terrorist militias that support Al-Saraj government, and among its elements are hired fighters by Turkey.

The fighting has been at ease over the past weeks, but it intensified yesterday on the southern Tripoli front. A Reuters journalist said that artillery could be heard.

This came while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan began a visit to Algeria as part of mobilizing consensus on his policy of intervention in Libya. A previous visit to Tunisia had failed, as he was unable to gain  the support of Tunisian President Qais Saeed for his intervention in Libya.

Earlier, the Libyan neighbors agreed during a meeting hosted by Algeria to reject foreign intervention in Libya's internal affairs.

Turkey has repeatedly called on foreign powers to pressure the Libyan National Army to cease fire after its field successes, but the major powers have expressed concern about Turkish military intervention in Libya, as it would be destabilizing to the already fragile stability in Libya.

In Berlin, foreign powers agreed to form a special committee composed of five military officials from both sides of the conflict to reinforce the fragile truce. Military officials are due to meet for the first time in Geneva within days.