Combatientes marroquíes vinculados a Daesh entran en la guerra de Libia

The European Centre for the Fight against Terrorism and the French Centre for the Analysis of Terrorism (CAT) have revealed that "dozens of Moroccan fighters" have arrived in Libya, as reported by the media Al Ahdath Al Maghribia to fight in the ranks of the Government of National Unity (GNA), led by Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj and supported by Turkey, Qatar and the Muslim Brothers. These mercenaries, from Syria, Iraq and "other countries in crisis" such as Somalia, or the Sahel region, have entered the North African nation via the sea route, forcing the European Coast Guard Agency to "intensify coastal surveillance rounds from eastern Libya to western Gibraltar".

"Libya is now the new destination for the fighters of the Daesh terrorist organisation, who are fleeing the conflict zones in Syria, Iraq, Somalia and the Sahel. Dozens of Moroccans are among those Daesh fighters," explains analyst Mohamed Younsi in local media Le360.

It is worth mentioning, at this point, that the sending of jihadists to Libya is not new. The Eurasian nation headed by Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been accused of training tens of thousands of mercenaries on Turkish soil who were later transferred to the North African country to fight the rival faction, the National Liberation Army (LNA), commanded by Marshal Khalifa Haftar. Among them were terrorists belonging to Daesh and other extremist brands. Already last April, a member of the jihadist organization who was arrested by the Iraqi authorities claimed to have "received administrative and military training courses in Turkey before starting his actions in Iraq. Within the framework of this policy, Ankara has managed the movements of these militiamen among the countries at war in the MENA region - Middle East & North Africa - which it uses to reinforce its national campaigns, for example, in Iraqi and Syrian territory against the Kurds and on Libyan soil against the Haftar Army, which is supported by France, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Along these lines, the SOHR also revealed last week that Turkey had sent up to 2 500 members of the Daesh branch in Tunisia to Libya in recent months. 

The London-based organisation reports that, in total, more than 16,000 Syrian mercenaries have arrived in Libya to join the ranks of the GNA, joining other fighters from Yemen or Sudan, all financed by Ankara and Doha. According to the LNA, the number of militiamen has shot up to 19,000.

Also on the ground in the North African country, it has been recorded how these insurgents have carried out operations to free fellow jihadists who were detained in Sorman prison, a town near the capital, Tripoli. According to Libyan security sources at the time, even "the Turkish air force offered the necessary support to carry out this mission, within the framework of cooperation between Erdogan and Sarraj".

For Europe, this has opened up a major security gap: it should be remembered that only 400 kilometres separate Libya from Community territory. Already last January it was documented how a group of 17 mercenaries with links to terrorism had fled to Europe from Libya, using the migration routes and entering via Italy. In March, up to 150 were counted. And in May, the London-based organization put the number of fighters who had left the North African country for European soil at 2,000.  

But for Morocco it also represents a challenge. Already in 2018, Younsi warned in Le360 that 300 mercenaries registered at Daesh were then on Libyan territory, "waiting to arrive in Eastern European countries with forged Iraqi or Syrian passports", a situation that put "the Moroccan security authorities on high alert", who were working "with their Libyan and Turkish counterparts to monitor the movements of these people and identify them". 

According to the media Akhbar Al Yaoum, the Alawi security forces began to "collect as much information as possible" in order to "anticipate any action by these fighters on their return to Morocco". "Since the collapse of the terrorist organization on the ground in Syria and Iraq, many jihadists, including several Moroccan members, have become mobile bombs in search of a new destination for the jihad or in expectation of receiving instructions from their Daesh leaders," Younsi concludes.