Suspended for seven months | Syrian mercenaries in Libya receive part of salaries

SOHR activists have reported that Turkish-backed Syrian mercenaries in Libya received a part of their monthly salaries after seven months of being suspended, as Turkey granted Syrian fighters, who didn’t receive their salaries in the past seven month, only three-month dues. Meanwhile, vacations for Syrian mercenaries were not decided, despite ongoing demands by the fighters to leave Libya.

It is worth noting that the financial dues received in Aleppo countryside reached 10,500 Turkish Liras and 600 U.S dollars in Libya.

Yesterday, SOHR activists reported that despite their ongoing appeals to return to Syria in light of their dire living conditions and deduction of their monthly payments, Turkish government continues misleading in the term of Syrian mercenaries of the National Army’s factions in Libya and insists on maintaining Syrian fighters, disregarding all international demands to evacuate all foreign powers from Libya.

Reliable SOHR sources in the camps of Turkish-backed Syrian mercenaries in Libya confirmed that tension is growing between the fighters and their commanders over the dire living conditions in the camps in Tripoli, which were turned into prisons after preventing the fighters from getting out of these camps. Moreover, the commanders continue delaying and deducting large sums of the fighters’ monthly salaries.

According to SOHR sources, altercation take place in a daily basis between Syrian fighters and their commanders, both in Libya and areas controlled by Turkish forces and their proxy factions in northern Aleppo, as the fighters send voice notes to their commanders, appealing to pay their payments and bring them back to Syria.

It is worth noting that there are nearly 7,000 Turkish-backed Syrian mercenaries in Libya, operating under the banner of various factions of the “National Army”.

On the other hand, the Syrian mercenaries recruited by the Russian security company “Wagner” have been still maintained in the Libyan territory.

We, at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), call for the evacuation of all Syrians who have been turned into mercenaries by the Turkish government and engaged in the Libyan conflict. We also demand the Turks and Russians stop using the Syrians and turning them into mercenaries serving their narrow interests.