Back-and-forth transfer operations | 130 Turkish-backed mercenaries arrives in Libya, while similar batch returns to Syria
Syrian mercenaries are still maintained in Libya with no looming return of all Syrians to their homeland, as Turkey continues back-and-forth transfer operations by sending batches of Syrian fighters to Turkey, then to Libya in return for bringing back similar batches from Libya to Syria.
In this context, Syrian Observatory sources have confirmed that nearly 130 fighters of Turkish-backed factions operating in Libya returned to Syria in the past few hours, while a similar batch has left areas under the control of Turkish-backed factions in north Syria region to Turkey, and it headed later to Libya. It is worth noting that these operations continue, despite all international calls and the considerable media coverage on the file of the mercenaries.
On July 10, Turkish intelligence service and Turkish-backed factions prepareed to send a new batch of Syrian mercenaries to Libya. SOHR sources reported that over 150 members of various Turkish- backed factions and “National Army” were being prepared to go to Turkey in order to be transferred to Libya before mid-July. On the other hand, a similar batch leave Libya in the same plane that would transport the new comers.
According to reliable SOHR sources, the shift of mercenaries would take place every 15 days. Accordingly, Turkey would maintain a constant number of mercenaries in its bases in Libya.
It is worth noting that Turkey recruited mercenaries for a monthly salary of 500 US dollars, and they set off from military and civil airports before transporting them into Syrian by land through military crossings controlled by Turkish-backed factions in the northern countryside of Aleppo.
In late June, SOHR activists documented a reported a new back-and-forth transfer operation to Syrian mercenaries from and into Libya, where a patch of 200 fighters returned and arrived in Syria on June 28, via the Hawar Kilis crossing in the Aleppo countryside. Meanwhile, over 300 fighters were in the Turkish camps inside Syria preparing to be transported later to Libya.
SOHR sources confirmed that a similar number of Syrian mercenaries joined the fighting factions inside Libya on the same day when the last patch arrived in a military transport aircraft (Yushin.)
Therefore, the number of mercenaries who have been transferred to Libya since the beginning of June rose to over 500 fighters belonging to Sultan Murad, Hamza Division, Amshat and others. Meanwhile, around 535 fighters returned back to Syria in the same period.
The withdrawal of Syrian mercenaries from Libya was completely suspended, despite all the ongoing international calls for their immediate departure, and the continuous media coverage for that issue, especially by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, amid Libyan-Libyan understandings.
Meanwhile, such calls went in vain as the Turkish government kept transferring Syrian mercenaries to Libya in light of a back-and-forth transfer operation, as there were over 7,000 Turkish-backed Syrian mercenaries inside Libya.