Turkey intensifies its presence in Libya in pursuit of its ambitions

Polarisation and military escalation in Libya have become a constant in the wake of the agreement signed last November between Turkey and the Tripoli-based National Accord Government (NAG) led by Fayez Sarraj. Within the framework of this security and economic cooperation agreement, Ankara has intensified its presence in Libya, sending hundreds of mercenaries and dozens of shipments of military material. The attacks have not stopped since then, despite the ceasefire announced just a fortnight ago to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, which has so far caused at least three deaths in the country. 

Meanwhile, the country's capital, Tripoli, remains the main victim of this war. Last week, two missiles hit the area of the park between Al-Shatt road and Zawyat Al-Dahmani, the district where the National Broadcasting Company of Libya, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Mahary Hotel, the Turkish Embassy and the residence of the Italian ambassador are located. These attacks resumed over the weekend and were directed against Mitiga International Airport, which has been closed since the beginning of the Haftar offensive to take control of Tripoli. 

In this scenario of instability, the spokesman of the Libyan Army, dependent on the GNA, Mohammed Gununu has announced that the Libyan air force had carried out six air attacks on the base of Al-Watiya, destroying three armored vehicles, two military vehicles and several positions of the forces of Khalifa Haftar, as reported by The Lybia Observer. For its part, Operation Fury Volcano indicated several hours earlier that they had conducted two more air strikes against this base. According to this data, the Libyan Air Force attacked this base three times on Sunday, neutralizing 10 fighters from Haftar's militias. 

Since 2014, Libya has been divided between the areas controlled by the internationally recognized Government of National Accord and the territory controlled by the authorities in the east, loyal to the Haftar militias, who in April 2019 launched an offensive to take control of the country's capital, Tripoli. The Libyan National Army is supported by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia, while Sarraj is backed by Turkey and Qatar. In recent hours, the attacks have also moved to the Al-Khalla front in southern Tripoli, where the NAG forces have bombed the Haftar positions, destroying two Grad launch vehicles and one vehicle loaded with ammunition. In response, the LNA has carried out three air strikes against Abu Grein in Misrata East, killing three Libyan army fighters under the command of the NAG and injuring several others, as well as an attack on Mitiga airport.

These attacks come after the Turkish Foreign Ministry announced on Sunday that Turkey is prepared to consider forces loyal to Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar as "legitimate targets" if they continue to carry out attacks against "their interests and diplomatic missions" in Libya. In the same vein, the spokesman of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), Omer Celik has again insisted on this premise, assuring that any attack on Turkish missions by Haftar's militias can expect a military response. "We are clearly saying that if our mission in Libya is attacked in any way, we will see Haftar's forces as legitimate targets," he stressed, according to statements gathered by the Anadolu news agency. 

The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said it regretted that such indiscriminate attacks had killed at least 15 people since the start of the month and injured around 50. "UNSMIL reiterates its strong condemnation of the attacks on civilians and civilian installations and reiterates its call for those responsible for such crimes to be brought to justice," it said in a statement posted on the social networking site Facebook.

A day earlier, the same organisation had reported attacks on civilian areas in Tripoli, including the bombing that took place near the Turkish embassy and the Italian ambassador's residence, in which at least two civilians were killed and three others injured. These attacks took place two weeks after Haftar announced the cessation of military operations during the month of Ramadan. 

"Once again, these attacks show a blatant disregard for international humanitarian law and human rights law and may constitute war crimes. UNSMIL reiterates that those guilty of crimes under international law must be held accountable," said UNSMIL in response to the intensified fighting in the midst of the ceasefire. On Tuesday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for an "immediate end to all military operations" in Libya in the face of increased fighting. 

In this context, Turkish-backed militias may be recruiting children to fight in Libya, according to a report by Al-Monitor that has been picked up by various media in the region. The newspaper warns that the recruitment of child soldiers, for whom a decent salary is promised, could continue, especially in the ranks of the faction of the Syrian Sultan Murad, supported by Turkey. "Ankara's aim is to use Libya to acquire rights to the gas front in the eastern Mediterranean. Ankara's leaders are now trying to threaten to expand operations in Libya, where they have sent weapons, in the hope that a dialectical war against Haftar will result in European support for Ankara. Turkey has used these threats in the past to obtain concessions from the EU and the US," Seth J. Frantzman, executive director of the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis told the Arab News. 

The document produced by the Syrian institution for Truth and Justice and to which Al-Monitor has had access, cites sources on the ground in Syria and Libya who claim that Turkey has recruited Syrian teenagers to join its units on the battle front. "Our investigation revealed that children are issued identity documents with false information about their date and place of birth," they said in this report. 

"If Turkey and the National Accord Government, recognized by the United Nations as the legitimate representative of Libya, are facilitating the deployment of children under 18 to fight in Libya, they are committing a serious violation of the Protocol," Mehmet Balci, co-founder of Fight for Humanity, a Geneva-based non-governmental organization that focuses on conflict prevention and promotes human rights, told Al Monitor.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Monday that a new batch of 250 mercenaries had arrived in Libya via Turkey to fight alongside the forces of the alliance formed by the so-called National Accord Government. Turkey's ambition in the Mediterranean knows no bounds, as Erdogan has shown in recent months.