Libya military demands the UN investigate Turkey arms shipments

The Libyan National Army has called on the United Nations Security Council to launch an investigation into the arrival of two shipments of military hardware from Turkey.

In a statement released late yesterday, the Libyan army expressed deep concern over the arrival of the shipments – which carried a variety of rifles and munitions, including over four million bullets – on Monday and Tuesday.

“The ammunition in those shipments included more than 4.2 million bullets, enough to kill nearly 80 per cent of the Libyan people, as well as pistols and rifles with their accessories, including silencers used for assassinations,” the statement said. “This is a proof that the purpose [of those arms] is to be used for terrorist operations in the Libyan territories.”

It added that the Libyan military command “demands the UN Security Council, the United Nations, and the United Nations Mission in Libya to condemn the Turkish Republic and start an immediate investigation into it.”

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This is not the first time Turkey has been found to be involved in the crisis in Libya between the Libyan National Army led by UAE-backed General Khalifa Haftar and the various opposition groups. In January 2013, reports emerged that Turkish weapons were found on a ship heading towards Libya as it stopped in Greece due to bad weather.

In December of the same year, Egyptian media outlets reported that four containers full of arms from Turkey were monitored by the Egyptian Customs Authority and were allegedly heading to Libya. Also, in the summer of 2014, Haftar ordered his forces to shell a ship carrying Turkish weaponry and heading towards the Libyan port of Derna.

Haftar and his Libyan National Army stands in opposition to the government in Libya’s western city of Tripoli, the Government of National Accord, which is officially recognised and backed by the United Nations.