Daesh seeks to regroup as Turkey interferes in Libya

Mostafa Kamel

As Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Ankara started moving military units to Libya to support the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, reports said the Daesh organization consider it a golden opportunity to be revived.

Libyan army spokesman Ahmed al-Mesmari has revealed during a press conference that Turkey has transferred hundreds of the most dangerous terrorists from Daesh and Al Qaeda from Syria to Libya, confirming that members of the terrorist organizations Daesh and the Al-Nusra Front were transferred by Turkish intelligence via an airport in Tunisia.

A report by the Gatestone Institute last December said Libya is now one of the main axes of future Daesh operations, to compensate for the loss of ground in Syria.

“Daesh in Libya finances its activities through robbery, kidnapping for ransom, extorting Libyan citizens and cross-border smuggling of artifacts and other commodities,” the report said, further warning that this state of instability makes room for Daesh to regroup.

“There will be different units over there as combatant forces, they will not be from our military. Our top-level military personnel will be coordinating the situation over there,” Erdogan said, before Turkish envoy to Libya Emrullah İşler deny what Erdogan announced.

Another statement by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu confirmed, in a statement on Monday, 6 January 2020, that his country would send military experts and technical teams to support the Sarraj government in Libya.

President Erdogan said on Sunday that Turkish military units had started moving to Libya to support al-Serraj’s government.

“There will be an operation center, there will be a Turkish lieutenant general leading and they will be managing the situation over there. Turkish soldiers are gradually moving there right now,” Erdogan said in an interview with CNN Turk.

Senior Turkish military personnel will coordinate with the combatant forces in Libya as well as provide training and expertise on the ground, Erdogan said.

Sources of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that nearly 1000 Syrian mercenaries have been already sent to the Libyan territory while around 1700 recruits are undergoing training courses in the training camps in Turkey.

SOHR sources documented the killing of the first Syrian fighter of those sent by Turkey to Libya, in Tripoli while fighting for the Government of National Accord.

Analysts warn that Turkey’s deployment of troops risks plunging Libya deeper into a Syrian-style proxy war between regional powers