The U.S. military says Turkey sent between 3,500 and 3,800 paid Syrian fighters to Libya during the first three months of 2020 to support the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in its war against the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Khalifa Haftar.
The Defense Department’s report, seen by the Associated Press on July 17, was the U.S. military’s first to detail the Turkish deployments that helped change the course of the war in Libya.
The report comes as the conflict in oil-rich Libya has escalated into a full blown regional proxy war fueled by foreign powers that pump arms and mercenaries into the country.
The report claims that Russian influence is increasing in Libya, as Moscow supported hundreds of mercenaries to fight alongside the LNA in a bid to take control of the capital, Tripoli, in the west of the country.
LNA forces have since retreated to central Libya following defeat by Turkish-backed forces fighting on behalf of the GNA.
The quarterly report issued by the Pentagon’s internal watchdog was published Thursday and says that Turkey paid and offered citizenship to thousands of mercenaries fighting alongside Tripoli-based militias.
The U.S. military report also said that the U.S. military found no evidence to suggest the mercenaries were affiliated with the Islamic State extremist group or al-Qaida.
Financial rewards are the most prominent motivations behind heading to Libya, not ideological or political considerations, according to the report.
The report covered only the first quarter of the year, until the end of March, two months before Turkish-backed forces aligned with the GNA took control of the city of Tarhuna and Al-Watiyah base.
The latest report said that the Turkish deployments likely increased in late May. It cites the U.S. Africa Command as saying that 300 Turkish-supported Syrian rebels landed in Libya in early April.
Turkey also deployed an “unknown number” of Turkish soldiers during the first months of the year, the inspector general adds.
Turkey is staking its hopes for greater leverage in the eastern Mediterranean on the U.N.-supported government in Tripoli, based on an agreement it signed with the GNA in December 2019.
The report claimed that Russia and the Syrian government agreed to send 300 to 400 former opposition rebels from the southwest village of Quneitra to Libya in exchange for a $1,000 per month salary and clemency from Syrian President Bashar Assad.
In May, the Pentagon accused Russia of sending at least 14 warplanes to a central Libyan airbase while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the U.S. military’s accusations on Thursday, insisting that “the Russian military is not involved in any processes in Libya in any way.”
Military tensions increased after the collapse of a deal to end the blockade of Libyan oil fields, which has deprived the country of its most important economic resource and the National Oil Corporation of an estimated $7 billion in revenue.
The warring parties are fighting to control Sirte, a strategic gateway to Libya’s central and eastern oil crescent, where most of the country’s production of 1.2 million barrels a day flowed.
On Thursday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi hosted dozens of tribal leaders loyal to Haftar in Cairo, where he repeated that Egypt will “not stand idly by in the face of moves that pose a direct threat to security.”
On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hit back, criticizing Egyptian and Emirati support for Haftar.
The National Oil Corporation also warned that international powers were engaging the country toward an escalation likely to extend to the oil and gas facilities.