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Home , Erik Prince, Gulf of Sidra, Janjaweed, Libya, Libyan National Army, Misrata

: THE FIRST TOTALLY PRIVATIZED WAR IN MODERN HISTORY

A report by Javier Martín Only has officially sent troops, THE FIRST although not for combat. And the LNA has a structure that could bring it closer to that of a regular armed force, with uniforms and TOTALLY a clear consolidated chain of command. The rest of the combatants are native PRIVATIZED and local and foreign PMSCs contracted by both rival governments in a sort of outsourcing that offers multiple WAR IN advantages, especially for foreign powers. MODERN COSTS, WITHDRAWALS HISTORY AND

Javier Martín The existence of and PMSCs is nothing new, true. They have existed since ancient times, but their pattern has changed in the last forty years. From the Alsa Masa, the anti-communist forces A victim of chaos and war since March created in the in 1984 during 2011, when NATO -pushed by - the presidency of the controversial decided to intervene and contribute with its Ferdinand Marcos, to the armed groups missiles to the victory of the different rebel "the awakening", promoted by the United factions over the long dictatorship of States in 2006 to fight the in Muammar Al Gaddafi, Libya has been since the Sunni of , to the then the scene of an armed conflict that in tribes in the of , the ten years has evolved from a rudimentary Community Guards in Mexico and even the civil war conditioned by the terrorism of LAGs in , the militias and jihadist ideology to a highly sophisticated paramilitary organizations associated with multinational conflict, becoming the first governments have been a planetary totally privatized armed conflict in constant since at least the end of . War II. Defined as "groups that identify themselves as pro-government, sponsored Unlike the war in Iraq (2003), where the by an Executive (national or sub-national), trend was driven by the regular use of that are not part of the regular security groups such as "", and the war forces, are armed and have a hierarchical in , where the use of Private Military organizational structure", according to the Security Companies (PMSCs) became classic description of Sabine C. Carey, widespread, armies do not fight in the professor at the University of Mannheim Libyan conflict. Not even local ones, since ( G e r m a n y ) , t h e s e c o n t r o v e r s i a l both the "Volcano of Anger" platform, organizations act on the limits of legality, linked to the UN-supported National normally in countries in conflict or Accord Government in and its only transition, and have more or less close, local ally, the city-state of ; and the more or less visible links with the authority so-called (LNA), under whose interests they prosper. under the orders of the controversial Marshal Khalifa Hafter, tutor of the According to a study conducted by Carey unrecognized Executive in Tobrouk and herself with Professors Neil J. Mitchell, a strongman of the country, are nothing more researcher at College London, and than a self-serving alliance of local militias Christopher K. Butler, from the University and warlords that have unstable loyalties. of New Mexico, "between 1982 and 2007 the governments of nearly sixty countries were linked to and cooperated with of ethnic cleansing broke out in 2003. The informal armed groups within their Janjaweed are part of the bloody criminal borders". A figure and a panorama that record of former Sudanese President remain stable, grosso modo, a decade later, General Hasan al Bachir, who is but now include a series of particularities accused of , war crimes and that transform these militarized entities . Cruelties were into a different threat, more disturbing and similar to those attributed in the former alarming if possible: advanced 2019, most Yugoslavia to groups such as the Red of them - especially in the and Barets or the Arkan Tigers, the latter having North - tend to conform to the come out of one of the most tedious pattern set by the new private military quarries of militias, the stands of football security companies in the style of the stadiums. As Xan Rice points out in his multinational Blackwater, whose use was Terror link of Village spared by popularized by the after the Janjaweed, militias and paramilitary groups illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003. Once the are usually made up of former rebels, profitable business of war has been religious extremists, violent football privatized, in some regions, especially rural radicals, bandits, "the case of the areas in the north of the , 's Janjaweed", or gangs formed in the streets, new southern border, or in countries in like the Chimeras, used in during the chronic conflict such as Libya, the regime of Jean Bertrand Aristide (the springboard for irregular migration in the also had a praetorian Mediterranean, they have begun to become guard trained by the Steele solid heterarchies, a new concept that Foundation, one of the first PMSC US alludes to managed by armed companies in an already expanding sector). groups and sustained in the informal economy where the authority of the state The benefit for governments lies in the fact has practically been turned upside down. that it makes it easier for them to evade the obligation of "accountability", one of Beyond their structure and the power that the essential principles of international law they have begun to accumulate in the and the tool that prevents, in transition territories where they have settled, one of processes, the repetition of crimes, as the the concerns of the experts is their Jael Irish Pady Woodworth, author of once the wars have ended, and the threat Dirty War, Clean Hands: ETA, the GAL, and they pose both to good governance and the the Spanish Democracy, recalls. "Informal defense of and respect for . groups allow governments to shift With war as the reason for their existence, responsibility and use repression for a some become enforcers for policies of strategic dividend while avoiding any repression and fear that governments could accountability," insists Mitchell, Butler, not take on. As Janice E. Thomson points and Carey in their study The impact of out in her book Mercenaries, Pirates and pro-goverment Militias on Human Rights S o v e r e i g n s : S t a t e - b u i l d i n g a n d Violations. The main consequence of this extraterritorial violence in early Modern gap is a significant increase in abuses and Europe, "few governments resist the a greater difficulty in monitoring and temptation to condone and even authorize restraining the militias, the first ones non-state violence while denying their interested in the persistence of violence responsibility for it or accountability". from which they profit. In this context, the There have been many significant examples lack of control is also much more in recent decades. Take the example of the pronounced and dangerous the more fragile Jajaweed , the hammer of the the State authority with which they are Sudanese Government in the Darfur region. associated. In an interview published in Recruited and encouraged under ethnic April 1987 by , one of pretexts, this Arab tribe traditionally linked the leaders of Alsa Masa stated that this to and the trade has Philippine paramilitary organization "was been spreading terror in north-western useful to the military because it avoided Sudan and eastern since a war with a the investigation of human rights abuses" political appearance and obvious features perpetrated in Davao City. migrant detention center in Tajoura, which was bombed at the beginning of July 2019: it was run by the local militia, one of the THE LIBYAN CASE most powerful among those acting under the umbrella of the government supported by the UN and the EU. Weeks earlier, the humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières had denounced the systematic Today, the most notable example is Libya, a violations of migrants' rights committed failed state, victim of chaos and civil war, there. "The use of these often poorly where militias condition the political trained and poorly monitored groups often agenda and rule over its economy. opens up more opportunities for violence Especially in the capital, the seat of a and contributes to more human rights government imposed by the UN after violations," argued Carey, Butler and the failure of the reconciliation plan Mitchell. promoted in 2015 by the then special envoy Bernardino León, which helped to The use of these companies was introduced strengthen the influence of armed groups. in Libya by Marshal Hafter in 2015, when Although on paper the authority belongs to he launched his offensive "Operation the entity led by Fayez al Serraj, the reality Dignity" to expel the Salafist militias on the ground shows that it is the multiple associated with the former democratic katibas that impose the law in the Libyan government in Bengazi, capital of neighborhoods they occupy. And those that the east and second-largest city in the handle the economic levers: access to country, and to conquer both the city of employment, housing and even banking Derna - one of the bastions of in services depends on the degree of northern Africa - and the , a involvement with the group, which acts like pearl of the opulent Libyan oil industry. a mafia family, but more and better armed. And it has become widespread to the point Militias such as the Tripoli Revolutionary of overflowing on all fronts with the entry of Brigades (TRB), led by warlord Haithan both and Turkey into the conflict - Tajouri, or the Special Deterrence Forces along with other states such as France, (RADA), led by Abdel Rauf Kara, not only , , , or - share and compete with smaller ones in the in the conflict throughout 2019. On business of security and smuggling both September 9, 2019, barely five months arms, people or fuel; but also influence after Hafter lifted the siege on Tripoli that politics through the Ministries of Defence still suffocates and bloodstains the city in and Interior, which they have infiltrated. April 2020, unmanned Turkish-made This is a business that also involves foreign "Bayraktar TB2" class fighter planes PMSCs, mainly from the , the bombed a position of the forces under the United States, the , command of the LNA in the strategic France, Qatar, Italy and Turkey, which location of Ksar bin Ghasir, twenty moves billions of euros a year and has kilometers south of the Libyan capital. multiplied human rights violations without the government being held accountable It would have been one more of the and lacking the resources to control it. It is multiple combat operations taking place in these militias, which are firmly established the since the controversial officer laid on their and have vague links with siege to the capital on April 4, if it were the central authority, that receive and not for the nature of the casualties caused. administer the aid funds from external Hours after the incident, a military cooperation. The case of the Coast Guard, spokesman for the rival government which is financed, equipped and trained by supported by the UN (GNA) assured the Italy and the European Union, is Efe Agency that a dozen Russian significant: its cadres are former smugglers mercenaries had died in the attack, all who have been converted into police members of the PMSC , officers who have often not severed their linked to the Kremlin. In a previous tracing ties with the mafia. Another example is the mission in the neighboring town of Al Sabiaa, one of its militias had found on the , and Libya and the Central weapons and documentation in Russian African the pivots of President that supposedly proved the warlike 's African envoy. "Libya, one involvement of Moscow - Hafter's of the major oil producers, is an attractive traditional ally - in the capital's siege. market for Russian oil companies seeking "Africa has become a huge battleground of to compete there with their Western the war between Russia and the West in counterparts. But it is also vital from a what we can define as a new edition of the military point of view because of its , a period of tension this time with location. With a Russian-friendly money taking precedence over ideological government, Moscow would expand its questions," explains Grcegorz Kuczynski, military capabilities further west, for director of the program at the example by building naval facilities, in the prestigious Warsaw Institute. "Given the Mediterranean, thus forming the Syria- dramatic economic situation in many of the Egypt-Libya axis," argues Kuczynski. countries of Africa and the relatively low financial cost required to provide essential In October 2019, this political, military aid to certain regimes, it is no surprise that and diplomatic courage led to an Moscow is devoting itself to supporting unprecedented international conference, more and more countries on the black held in the city of Sochi, which was continent. African leaders are also aware attended by more than forty African leaders that Russia will not ask them to respect and nearly ten thousand businessmen, democracy and human rights in return,' mostly Russian. Four months earlier, the stresses Kuczynski, one of the world's Russian Arms Forum had witnessed a leading experts on Russian politics. similar success, with some twenty major contracts signed. "The Russian oligarchs Academics and analysts agree on setting see Africa as an opportunity, especially the date of Russia's return to Africa at those closest to Putin. As a source of 2015, just a few months after the start of minerals and as a market of opportunities international sanctions for the conflicts in for the military industry," insists Ukraine and . That year, trade Kucyzinski. "It is the scene of a global between Moscow and the continent geostrategic reconfiguration with both the multiplied from 3.4 billion dollars a year to entry of and the return of Russia, more than 14.5 billion dollars in 2016. expelled in 1991. Both benefit from the According to data from the renowned retreat of the colonial powers and the Swedish research center SIPRI, the sale of United States," he adds. Like , arms and the of war - a Moscow is pursuing a neo-imperialist policy growing global business - were the devoid of prejudice beyond money. But it mainstays of a revival that is flourishing gains a certain advantage by taking from the ashes of the former advantage of the still lukewarm bailouts and aims to displace the former colonial left by the USSR's presence. It negotiates powers, particularly France. In that short the same with both, without paying time, Russia became the main supplier of attention to the ancestral enmities that arms to Africa with 35 percent of the populate -, -, market share, surpassing Beijing (17 nor to past history or international percent), Washington (9.6 percent) and denunciations, as in the case of Egypt of Paris (6.7 percent). Its main clients were Abdel Fatah al Sisi, one of its best its traditional partners - Algeria, Egypt, comrades. In exchange for contracts to , and - but also new allies exploit oil, gas, , diamonds, nuclear such as , , Sudan, and energy and rare minerals for companies , where the presence of Russian such as Rosneft, Lukoil, Zarubezhneft, engineers, political advisers and , Rosal or - all of which mercenaries has shot up exponentially in are present in Africa -, he offers arms and the last five years. A Neo-Zaragoza-style various military services through the expansion orchestrated from the Kremlin, expansive and lucrative business of private which has made the military company security, which he has arrived at late but Rosoboronexport the third most powerful with a potentially superior logistical and human force than his competitors. Sudan is seen as the bolt from which to and the itself are consolidate and extend the military strategy two of the best examples. In 2016, the against the economic muscle of China. "For then Central African President, Faustin Putin, Libya is also a question of prestige: Archange Toudera, - who was suspicious of Russia is striving to regain the former France - accepted Russian aid. About 250 influence it had enjoyed in the country mercenaries from the Wagner Group landed under the Gaddafi government and rectify in the country to guarantee its peace of what the Kremlin perceives as a mistake: mind. Just one year later, the not having blocked the NATO-backed government granted licenses for gold and intervention in 2011," Kuczynsski stresses. diamond mining to the Lobaye Invest In the same vein, the commander of the company, owned by the controversial U.S. Forces in Africa (AFRICOM), General oligarch Yeugeny Prigozhin. Known as the Thomas Waldhauser, warned the U.S. restaurateur of President Vladimir Putin -of Senate months ago that Moscow's interest whom he is a personal friend-, owner of the in the North African nation is related to the largest Russian catering company and the desire to create difficulties for the Atlantic "troll farm" Research Agency, Alliance. "For Russia, Libya is of political, Prigozhin is also the main shareholder of economic and military importance. The the Wagner Group and has his tentacles country serves as an important gateway for extended in both Libya and Sudan. many immigrants to Europe, who cross the border illegally. This is where Moscow In the latter state, his mercenaries escorted seeks to play a key role in having an impact deposed dictator Omar Hasan to Bachir in on migration processes, trying to use them exchange for permits for two more of his to potentially destabilize the European mineral companies: M-Invest and Meroe Union," insists the Polish expert. Gold. Although the tyrant fell, the so-called Sudanese Transitional Council - author of Russia has indeed diversified its support the bloodless coup d'état in 2019 - has among the distinct factions active in the maintained the contracts already signed. Libyan conflict. Both in that of the "Security companies are the big business of weakened GNA and in that of the Al- this century," explains Filip Bryjka, a Qadhafi family, which it continues to researcher at the Faculty of Military and protect. But the most abundant is Security Affairs at the University of undoubted that carried by Marshal Hafter, Wroclaw. Not only because of the economic his favorite bet. A member of the coup benefits it generates but also because of d'état leadership that brought the tyrant to the political advantages it offers. Unlike power in 1969, the biography of the armies, which are supported by public controversial officer is a succession of money and subject to the rule of national ambitions and betrayals. Abandoned on the and international law, the privatization of battlefield of Chad by Al Gaddafi, who saw war reduces costs, avoids accountability his progressive popularity as a threat, he and avoids the political price of returning was recruited in the by the CIA, coffins home. It is easy to deny the links to which transferred him to the United States, mercenaries, to avoid legal responsibility granted him nationality and provided him and to protect one's reputation from civil with the means to rise as the main s o c i e t y ' s d e n u n c i a t i o n s . " C o m b a t opposition figure in exile. Back in Libya at operations, military training, security the beginning of the revolution, he needed consultancy, bodyguard service, logistics, three years to convince and dominate the and intelligence operations in a grey area heterogeneous rebel groups that arose in of the law that is closer to the forbidden the eastern region. Inaugurated in 2014, than to morality," Bryjka points out. he managed to get the then elected and the unrecognized In this scenario, Libya and its civil war government in Tobrouk to grant him control have emerged in the last five years at the of all the related militias. Months later, he heart of Russian African politics. A launched a phased military campaign that bridgehead that, beyond its privileged has allowed him to appropriate most of the geographical position in the Mediterranean, national territory and become a key political actor, fundamental in any process militants to offer support to both the Tripoli of pacification. government and Hafter," Kuczynski says. "Russian mercenary forces offer a valuable Lacking a regular army, Hafter has reinforcement for Hafter's forces because intelligently maneuvered and used both the of their combat experience and special economic, political and military support of skills. Although the Tripoli government had his Arab allies - Egypt, Saudi Arabia, documented between 600 and 800 Jordan, and the United Arab , Russian fighters in Libya, this number was which have provided him with the believed to be much lower until early necessary air superiority - and the . However, it has started to grow advantages offered by the various PMSCs sharply following the arrival of the private to forge his alternative and secure a mercenary companies Moran and Schieft, dominant negotiating position. Russian in response to the entry of Syrian militias," companies in particular, even though they he stresses. account for only five percent of a growing global business. The first of these, RSB According to the Italmiradar website, Group. Owned by Oleg Krinitsyn and linked soldiers of fortune from the latter two to the shipping company companies landed in in the first Navsec Group Ltd. After the expulsion of week of this year onboard military transport the jihadist groups in Derna and in the planes from an airbase in Latakia. Moran eastern capital itself - for which Hafter Group, linked to Slavonic Corps, based in opened a corridor to to create and with experience in the complications for Misrata and Tripoli - the North and , specializes marshal needed the support of a company in unit escorts and maritime traffic. specialized in mining and protection of oil Present in the war in Syria, where it fought installations to guarantee the security of Jays al extremists in Al Sukhnah and his conquests in the Gulf of Sidra, the Homs, it has also carried out anti-piracy diamond of the energy industry in Libya. missions in the . The Schift And RSB had already proved its Group's main asset is its expertise in effectiveness in a similar task in Syria. protecting oil installations, as it also Wagner Group was the second. Led by demonstrated in Syria. Both landed at a Dimitry "Wagner" Utkin, a retired lieutenant time when Hafter was seeking to shore up general who commanded two of the his conquests in the West and secure the Russian Army's elite brigades, its specialty maritime transport of both arms and oil. is forward combat. Formed - mostly - in the "The recent growth in the number of Alpha and Vimpel units, attached to the Russian mercenaries, paid by the Persian Main Directorate of Intelligence (GRU) and monarchies, serves to counteract the influx the FSB, it has four assault brigades, one of Syrian insurgents, previously redeployed tank brigade, three communication by Turkey. Those who enter the game are brigades, one reconnaissance and Russian mercenary companies that take intelligence brigade and one engineering advantage of the shortage of personnel (of brigade that train at a base in Molkina others), since the contractors operate in (Krasnodar) and have years of experience. many other countries," concludes First at the siege of Donbas and then in the Kuzcinsky. Syrian war, where they played a major role in the battle of Palmyra, fought in March But it's not just Russia he's turned to. 2016. In need of elite forces on the front Hafter has also benefited from the services line, more than a thousand of them landed of several Arab PMSCs, which are also in Benghazi via Latakia at the end of 2018 involved in a business, that of privatizing to prepare the assault on the capital. the war, which moves more than 225 "Libya's civil war is turning into a power billion euros a year. Knowing the terrain, struggle between Russia, the United Arab the marshal added Sudanese and Chadian Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt on the militias to his campaign in the south, one hand, and Turkey, Qatar and Italy on which culminated successfully at the end the other. Both sides in the conflict will of 2018 and served to snatch the oil continue to send more contractors and resources of the west from the GNA. Through a former Gaddafist airbase Benghazi Defense Brigades, the radical installed in the southern of Jufrah, militia led by the former mufti of Tripoli, they have joined his offensive with Sheikh Sadeq al Ghariani, linked to Qatar. mercenaries from the Justice and Equality In Tripoli, he has infiltrated the Special Movement, of Abdelkarim Cholloy Konti, Deterrence Force (RADA), led by the from the Sudanese Liberation Movement powerful warlord Abdel Rauf Kara, owner of (Minni Minawi) of Haber Ishak and from the GNA's Ministry of the Interior and the the Sudan Liberation Movement Abdel only one who has not joined in the defense Wahib of Yusif Ahmad Yusif "Karjakola", all of the capital. of them essential to guarantee the control of the border and of the Al Sahrara field, In the war in Libya, the first totally which are exploited by multinationals such privatized in history since this trend began as TOTAL or . About 4,000 to spread after the illegal invasion of Iraq mercenaries from the Rapid Support (2003), PMSCs from the US, UK, France, Forces, linked to the new military Italy, Turkey, and Jordan, -among many government in , joined the others- are also active, some of them encirclement of Tripoli and Misrata in July present in the country since the rebel 2019. Led by Mohamad Hamdam Dagalo uprising that in 2011 ended Al Gaddafi's "Hemadti", a prominent member of the long dictatorship. One of the first Sudanese Transnational Council that entrepreneurs was , founder of overthrew Omar Hasan al Bachir, is a force the famous "Blackwater". Persecuted for of some 30,000 men from the Arab his shadowy activities in Iraq, Prince "Janjaweed" militias, accused of war crimes moved to in 2010, shortly after in the Darfur region and allegedly linked to selling his share in the controversial Dickens&Manson, a front company in company and there he founded a new one, . Armed and financed from Abu Reflex Responses Company (R2), with Dhabi and , they have shared the which he has worked in every front lines with forces from both countries in which the government has been in the war in . Like the rest, Rapid involved. In May 2011, R2 and the Royal Support Forces are also linked to human, Al Nahayan family signed an agreement arms and fuel trafficking in the region. worth 529 million euros to create an elite force called the "Security Support Group", Thanks to his long-standing ties with the with a thousand men trained in intelligence Tebu and Taureg tribes living in southern and counter-terrorism. Part of this legion, Libya, Hafter also has in his ranks Chadian made up of foreign soldiers of fortune, has paramilitary forces, in particular the Front worked in eastern Libya, along with for the Alternation and Control of Chad, led different militias linked to the by Ali Mahamat, which has some government and the former Libyan National 700 men in Jufrah and which the marshal Army (LNA), which is led by Hafter. Since knows from his years of war in the Aouzou 2015, some of these foreign officers have mining region, and Mahamat Nari's Union been flying IOMAX AT-802 Air Tractors of of Forces for Democracy and Development. the UAE army, armed with Turkish-made He has also used private local Madkhali bombs, and supporting the Marshal's militias to combat Jihadi groups. Founded operations from the air. in the 1990s by Rabi' bin Hadi 'Umayr al- Madkhali, a cleric close to the Saudi royal The Emirate's AT-802 were crucial during family, the Madkhali movement is a the siege of the city of Benghazi, heretical interpretation of Islam that particularly during the siege of the Ganfuda advocates extreme non-violent Salafism quarter, one of those that resisted to the and fights jihadism. Present in Libya since end; and in the city of Derna, one of the the time of Al Gaddafi, it is concentrated in main bastions of Jihadism in North Africa. five large militias in the eastern region - And more recently they are in the current Battalion Tawhid, the Tariq Ibn Ziyad military harassment of Tripoli and Misrata. Brigade, Subul al Salam, the Al Wadi The planes usually take off from the Al Brigade and Al Kaniyat - and they have Khadim base in eastern Libya, and they already been key in the fight with the carry the distinctive cover. Prince, who currently runs the Frontier Resources Intelligence sources in Tripoli consulted at Group, a reputed air transport company in the time by the Efe Agency stated that the Africa, denies that his mercenaries are Syrian fighters were deployed in the south involved in the conflict. Just like Russia, of the capital and east of Misrata, and that Sudan and the rest of the states involved in they made it possible to contain the a war, Libya's has become a multinational momentum of their Sudanese, Chadian and armed conflict without the presence or Russian counterparts and to rebalance the need for national armies. The fact is that political process. At the end of March, private companies not only make attacks amid intense calls from international cheaper and eliminate responsibility for powers and in particular from the UN for "collateral victims". They also support the both sides to accept a "humanitarian truce" logistic chain links, by participating in the to prevent the real fear of the invisible transport of weapons and soldiers. Hafter coronavirus from being added to the war, and the Tobruk government have turned to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights companies such as the Moldovan Sky Prim revealed that at least 151 Syrian Air, linked to the Emirate operator Oscar mercenaries had died in fighting in the Jet. There is evidence of different flights in south of Tripoli and in the outskirts of the the interior of the country, transporting city of Misrata since the beginning of delegations between bases in (west) 2020. According to the organization, which and Tobruk (east), in days before or after has been monitoring the conflict in Syria battles. since the outbreak of the uprising against the dictatorship of the Al-Assad dynasty, The GNA, a government not elected but most of them perished on fronts south of recognized by the international community, the capital such as Al Salah Al-Din, Al imposed by the UN after its failed peace Ramlah or Al Hadabah, all of them near process in 2015, also lacks an army. Its the old international airport, the key to the ranks include local Islamist militias - conquest of the city - and in the financed from Qatar -, Italian government neighboring city-state of Misrata, which has intelligence units, French, Italian and historical, economic and strategic ties with British mercenaries and, above all, regular Turkey, and their bodies were repatriated to soldiers and Turkish special forces. At the Syria and buried in areas under the control beginning of January, and in the middle of of the militias ".Euphrates Shield", in the Hafter's troops' advance towards the port of region of . They belonged, the Misrata, Ankara became the first Observatory claims, to Syrian rebel government to make its interference in opposition groups such as the Al-Mutasim Libyan affairs official. Also concerned divisions, Murad and the Suqur Al- about the close relationship between the Shamal Al-Hamzat and Suleiman Shah Tobrouk government and , Turkish brigades, the source explained, and they President Recep Tayeb Erdogan justified were part of a total of 4,750 Syrian the sending of "non-combatant troops" into mercenaries reportedly recruited by Turkey. the country on the need to undermine the Another 1,900 were then in Syria fragile negotiated with Russia. completing their training before being sent However, together with Turkish soldiers, to North Africa, he claimed. nearly 2,000 Syrian mercenaries landed in Tripoli and Misrata, most of them highly qualified fighters of the opposition "", a platform of Islamist rebel groups that took up arms against the Bachar al-Assad dictatorship and which Ankara has financed. Most of them belong to the so-called "", although units from the "Sultan Mourad" and Moutasim divisions, all of which are registered with the Salafist movement, have also been detected. "War and smuggling are two very profitable businesses in Libya, and as long as that goes on, there is no interest in ending the conflict," explains a European intelligence officer posted in the area. This situation is reminiscent of Syria, where Turkey and Russia, through the business of war and the support of the various Arab allies, have taken advantage of the new geopolitical interests of the United States and the retreat of the European powers to divide up the country and begin to recover their lost ancestral influence. And without having to worry about what they call human rights. END

A report by Javier Martín