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2020-05-21 Africa North
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Syrian Rebel and Regime Forces Now Fight in Libya
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[AnNahar] While a ceasefire in Syria has reduced combat between rebels and government forces, mercenaries from the two sides are still fighting in Libya on behalf of their Russian and Ottoman Turkish backers.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
 ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
supports some Syrian rebels and Libya's UN-recognised Government of National Accord, while Russia supports Syria's Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Continued from Page 1
Scourge of Qusayr...
and Libya's eastern-based strongman Khalifa Haftar
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all. Actually, he is, but slowly...
Ankara and Moscow brokered the recent truce in Syria but fighting is ongoing in Libya, where Haftar's forces have been trying to seize Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
for over a year.
A recent rapprochement between Assad and Haftar shows the increasing overlap between the two conflicts.
In March, Libya's parallel eastern government reopened the Libyan embassy in Damascus after it was closed in 2012, while flights resumed recently between the Syrian capital and Benghazi, Haftar's domain 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) east of the Libyan capital.
A recent confidential United Nations
...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly...
report identified 33 flights by Syria's private Cham Wings Airline to Libya this year, believed to be carrying Syrian mercenaries.
"It is estimated from ground sources that the number of Syrian imported muscle supporting (Haftar's) operations is less than 2,000," wrote the UN experts, who are monitoring an arms embargo on Libya. The experts alleged that Cham Wings flew the Syrians to Libya for three-month contracts with Russian private military company Wagner, who reportedly recruited the mercenaries to fight for Haftar. Moscow denies any role in the presence of Russian mercenaries in Libya.
When the UN panel asked Damascus about the flights to Benghazi, the Syrian government said the flights were for civilians, "particularly those Syrians living in Libya".
"The panel is unconvinced of the veracity of that response," the UN experts wrote.
- 'COMMON ENEMY' -
Damascus and Haftar have a "common enemy" in Turkey, Oxford University researcher Samuel Ramani notes.
Russia may be behind the warming relationship between Syria and the Libyan strongman, Ramani said. For Moscow, "the aim would be to warn Turkey that it could retaliate asymmetrically against Ottoman Turkish military actions in Syria with a reciprocal escalation in Libya, creating two fronts for Turkey and forcing it to overstretch," he told AFP.
The UN experts estimated that up to 5,000 Syrian mercenaries may be in Libya, including "those fighters recruited by Turkey in support of the GNA".
Turkey has acknowledged sending fighters to support the GNA in Libya, but has not specified the number. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights believes the number to be much higher and says Turkey has sent 9,000 Syrian mercenaries to Libya, including 150 minors.
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said "3,300 more fighters are being trained in Ottoman Turkish bases" before being sent to front lines south of the Libyan capital.
Abdel Rahman said the Syrian mercenaries belong to the National Army, a coalition of pro-Ottoman Turkish Syrian rebels based in Idlib province, and estimated that 298 of them have been killed in Libya, including 17 child soldiers.
He was unsure of the number of Syrian mercenaries supporting Haftar. Oxford academic Ramani said many of the mercenaries were motivated to escape "poverty, unemployment and socioeconomic deprivation in Syria".
Russia had recruited the mercenaries, who fought alongside Wagner group in Libya, Ramani said.
The United Arab Emirates, which also supports Haftar, has recruited Sudanese mercenaries, Ramani said.
Foreign involvement in Libya and Syria has exacerbated both conflicts, in which hundreds of thousands have been killed and millions displaced. 
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Posted by trailing wife 2020-05-21 00:00||
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