On Thursday, the spokesman for the Libyan National Army, Major General Ahmed Al-Mismari, announced that 103 Syrian mercenaries loyal to Turkey had been killed in Tripoli during the last 72 hours.
In a statement, Al-Mismari said that the death toll counts members of the following Syrian armed groups: Sultan Murad, al-Mu’tasim, Al-Hamzat, Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Majd and Al-Shamal Brigade.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) announced on Wednesday that the death toll of Syrians fighting in Libya has risen to 151, with eight confirmed deaths in the past few days.
The SOHR claims that Turkey has lowered the salaries of Syrians who volunteered to fight in Libya after the latter exceeded the number requested by Turkey, totaling 6,000 fighters.
SOHR sources report that the number of Syrian recruits who have arrived in Tripoli to date has reached nearly 4,750, while nearly 1,900 others are in Turkey for training.
In January the Turkish Parliament approved President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s proposal to send Turkish military forces to Tripoli in support of the Government of National Accord (GNA). Regional tensions have been high as a result of the Libyan crisis and the energy race in the eastern Mediterranean, where Turkey is heavily involved.