Turkey provides drones to Libya’s terrorist militias

Nora Bendary

Turkish drones have been violating the Libyan airspace in a clear support by President Recep Tayyib Erdogan to Fayez Sarraj’s government of national accord (GNA) militias.

Turkey continues to support terrorist organizations by all means and equipment possible, including drones, which the militias could not manufacture.

Since the battle of Tripoli that took place April 4, 2019, the Libyan National Army (LNA) has been exposing violations committed by Ankara in Libya, including the support of terrorist militias.

The Libyan army revealed during the past days that the Turkish support for the terrorist militias in Tripoli includes the flow of ships loaded with weapons and military equipment, terrorist elements from Syria and Iraq, and attack drones that shed the blood of Libyans and destroy their country.

The Libyan army is working hard against the Turkish role, warning the terrorist militia that resorting to Ankara will not be of any use, therefore, the army’s media office announced on Sept. 25, 2019 initiating air raids over the Mitiga Airport, destroying a Turkish drone within the base.

The GNA is using the Mitiga International Airport in Tripoli for military purposes and as base for drones, which provide aerial cover for the terrorist militias.

Libya is “possibly the largest drone war theatre in the world”, UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame said in a video released by the United Nations on Wednesday.

Libyan armed forces have managed so far to down more than 10 Turkish drones as well as the control room in the Mitiga International Airport and a drone base in Misrata.

Turkey provides the terrorist militias in Tripoli with Bayraktar TB2, which is the only military drone that Turkey manufactures and exports to countries, including Ukraine and Qatar. This is the same drone that Turkey relied in Operation Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch in Syria.

According to a report by The Independent, Khaled al-Meshri, president of Libya’s High Council, confirmed in an interview that the GNA had obtained unmanned drones in the last few days and modified them to counter the devastating effect of Khalifa Haftar’s war planes and aerial surveillance capabilities.

Meshri, a former member of the Libyan branch of the Muslim Brotherhood organization, has said his government was focused on defending the capital and dislodging Haftar’s forces from his strongholds in the cities of Tarhouna and Garyan, south of the capital.

Erdogan publicly admitted that Turkey has been supplying military hardware to the Libyans, flaunting a UN arms embargo. He declined to detail the weaponry, but described the ministry of defense and the Turkish national intelligence agency as key players in the program.

“In light of their demands, we offer them support, in exchange for compensation, of course,” he said in response to a question by The Independent. “They had great troubles in defense equipment because they were unable to get any support for anywhere. With regard to the drones, for example, they have ensured a balance of power.”

Hesham Al-Naggar, an expert on Islamist movements, told The Reference in an interview that Turkey’s support to the terrorist militia in Tripoli is considered an attempt by Erdogan to compensate for the failure of his affiliated militias, whether al-Qaeda, Daesh or the Muslim Brotherhood, who endured remarkable losses during the past period.

He added that Erdogan decided to support these militias with drones in an attempt to balance power and pressure to achieve political gains after the success of national armies in achieving victories against terrorist militias supported by the Turkish regime.