Libyan army general: Turkey sends 400 mercenaries to Libya every day

15.03.2020, Tripoli.

Turkey sends 400 terrorists to Libya every day, a representative for the General Command Major-General Ahmed al-Mesmari, said at journalists’ conference in Cairo on March 15.

Terrorists are being brought into Libya by civil aviation, Mismari noted. He also added that Turkey has brought 2 000 members of ISIS (an organization banned in Russia) and al-Nusra (an organization banned in Russia) into Libya. In total, about 7.5 thousand mercenaries from Syria were sent to Libya, said the General Staff representative.

According to al-Mismari, the army has recorded the flight of 190 mercenaries to Europe.

On March 12, the Libyan National Army reported that Turkey started transferring mercenaries from Libya to Tunisia.

Background

On February 15, 2011, mass riots erupted in the Libyan city of Benghazi during the so-called Arab Spring rapidly developing into a civil war in the country.

The President of Libya, Muammar al-Gaddafi, was assassinated on October 20.

The main stage of the war ended on October 23. The death toll during the civil war exceeded 50,000 people. The official power in Libya was finally transferred to the National Transitional Council of Libya (TNC) formed by the opposition.

The overthrow of Gaddafi did not lead to peace in Libya. The civil war continued permanently, the country was torn apart in the conflicts between various warring groups of Islamists and tribes.

On July 7, 2012, elections to the Libyan parliament, the General National Congress, were held.

On February 14, 2014, General Khalifa Haftar announced the resignation of the Libyan Government and the dissolution of the General National Congress.

On May 16, Haftar announced a military operation against Islamists in Benghazi. And a new large-scale civil war begins in Libya.

On June 25, elections to a new Libyan parliament, the House of Representatives of Libya, were held. The parliament is moving to the north-east of the country to the city of Tobruk.

On November 6, the Supreme Court of Libya, located in Tripoli, declared the parliamentary elections invalid and announced the dissolution of the Libyan House of Representatives. Parliamentarians do not recognize the court’s decision.

On March 2, 2015, the Libyan House of Representatives in Tobruk decides to appoint Khalifa Haftar as Supreme Commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA). The Libyan National Transitional Council in Tripoli does not recognize the decision of Parliament and declares Haftar a war criminal.

Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency

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