Disputes between Erdogan’s mercenaries in Libya

Islam Mohammed

Sharp disagreements between the Al-Wefaq terrorist militia in Libya and the Syrian mercenaries who were transported by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Libya threaten the outbreak of an imminent armed clash, the signs of which appeared in more than one incident, the most recent of which in the second day of Eid Al-Adha, special forces belonging to the Ministry of Interior Al-Wefaq, the arrest of members of the Chadian militia who were brought by the commander of the Western Military Region, Usama Al-Juwaili, to support Al-Wefaq, after citizens’ complaints that they had been subjected to robbery in their homes and the involvement of Chadians in forming criminal gangs.

The differences between these armed militias have escalated since the end of the battle for Tripoli due to differences, some doctrinal and others related to leadership, as well as the recurrence of the mercenaries’ transgressions, which sometimes reached the level of the rebellion.

This comes while Ankara continues to flood Libya with more Syrian mercenaries, and to attract others to its camps in preparation for sending them there as well, as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in its latest report counted the rise in the number of militants sent by Turkey to Libya to reach 17,000, of whom 2,500 are Tunisians. He revealed the arrival of a new batch of mercenaries, including hundreds of Syrian nationalities, while a batch of about 6 thousand mercenaries had returned to Syria after the end of their terrorist contracts.

For its part, the US Department of Defense confirmed that Ankara had sent thousands of mercenaries, and a report issued by Pentagon indicated that the Turks sent about 4,000 Syrian mercenaries to Libya during the first three months of this year.

The report on counterterrorism operations in Africa also pointed out that the Turkish authorities offered money and offered citizenship to thousands of mercenaries in exchange for participating in the Libyan conflict alongside the forces loyal to Al-Wefaq.

Violent conflicts have occurred between these factions in Syria, which is what is feared that these conflicts will spread between the followers of the same factions in Libya.

On April 8, bloody clashes erupted between armed men from the pro-Turkish factions in the city of Afrin, northern Syria, during which machine guns were used between the two parties.

Tension, the pace of which did not subside days before, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented, in the month of March, the killing and wounding of dozens of armed factions of different affiliations, which are united only by loyalty to Turkey while differing in ideological and tribal affiliations.