Libya exposes Haftar's efforts to hire mercenaries

Libya’s Khalifa Haftar in Athens, Greece on 17 January 2020 [ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images]

The Libyan Army on Tuesday published a document implicating eastern warlord Khalifa Haftar in bringing into the country mercenaries from Syria, reports Anadolu Agency.

Images of contracts signed between Haftar and security firms showed that every mercenary was paid $200 monthly in addition to $10 for participating in any military operation.

Bloody Haftar – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

The images, published by the media office of the government-led Operation Volcano of Rage, also revealed that mercenaries get $20 as a bonus.

The media office also released photos of Syrian mercenaries in the city of As-Suwayda ahead of their trip to Hmeimim airbase en route to the UAE-controlled al-Khadim airbase in eastern Libya.

READ: Libya army controls Haftar militia supply lines

In April, media reports suggested that Russia had sent 300 Syrian militants from the city of Quneitra in southern Syria to Libya.

According to several international reports, Haftar’s militia includes a large number of mercenaries from Africa and the Middle East.

The Libyan Army recently inflicted heavy blows on Haftar and liberated Tripoli and Tarhuna, in addition to other strategic locations, including Al-Watiya airbase, from his militias.

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.