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Turkish President Admits Sending Syrian Fighters to Libya

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan during a meeting at the Parliament in Ankara, Turkey (Turkish Presidential Press Office)
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan during a meeting at the Parliament in Ankara, Turkey (Turkish Presidential Press Office)
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Turkish President Admits Sending Syrian Fighters to Libya

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan during a meeting at the Parliament in Ankara, Turkey (Turkish Presidential Press Office)
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan during a meeting at the Parliament in Ankara, Turkey (Turkish Presidential Press Office)

Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan said his country has sent Syrian opposition fighters to Libya.

“Turkey is there [in Libya] with a training force. There are also people from the Syrian National Army,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul, referring to opposition fighters who were previously known as the “Free Syrian Army”.

The Turkish president added that the reports are saying Turkey sent mercenaries from Syria, wondering why no one discusses the 2,5000 mercenaries of the Russian company Wagner or the 15,000 mercenaries from Sudan and Chad who fight alongside Libyan National Army (LNA) forces.

“We are in Libya at the invitation of the Libyan people, and the legitimate government representing it,” referring to the memorandum of understanding for military and security cooperation signed with Government of National Accord, headed by Fayez al-Sarraj.

“We will not go out until peace and stability are achieved in Libya,” continued Erdogan.

Several reports had indicated that Turkey sent Syrian mercenaries after they were promised the Turkish citizenship and salaries of up to $2,000 per month, to fight alongside militias loyal to the GNA.

This is the first time Erdogan admits to sending these elements and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) estimated they were around 3,600 fighters from pro-Turkish factions and brigades in Syria.

The Turkish President reaffirmed that his country will continue to support the GNA and renewed his attack on LNA leader Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, saying that he was “mercenary and has illegal status."

Erdogan's comments came after a surprising meeting in Istanbul with Sarraj, who withdrew from the UN-sponsored Geneva peace talks on Libya, aimed to establish a permanent cease-fire.

The Turkish presidency said the closed meeting between Erdogan and Sarraj was not included in the President's agenda, without giving any further details.

Diplomatic sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Sarraj briefed Erdogan on the Geneva talks, and the situation after the LNA bombed Tripoli port.

They suggested that Sarraj may have requested further Turkish military support to thwart LNA’s advancement.

Earlier, Haftar visited Moscow where he met the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, and the two agreed on the need to implement the decisions of the Berlin Conference on the Libyan crisis.

For his part, the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday that Turkish guarantees in Libya are dependent on a truce between warring sides being upheld.

“If the cease-fire does not continue, the transfer to a political process is very hard. The world condemns, but what is being done to stop Haftar?”

Turkey's special envoy to Libya Emrullah Isler said Friday that Turkey is in Libya in agreement with the legitimate government, referring to Sarraj’s government, denying that Turkey had established a military base in Tripoli.

He indicated that members of the Turkish forces in Libya use bases and camps that were established mainly in Tripoli.

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Former Israeli Spies Describe Attack Using Exploding Electronic Devices against Lebanon’s Hezbollah

An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)
An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)
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Former Israeli Spies Describe Attack Using Exploding Electronic Devices against Lebanon’s Hezbollah

An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)
An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)

Two recently retired senior Israeli intelligence agents shared new details about a deadly clandestine operation years in the making that targeted Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Syria using exploding pagers and walkie talkies three months ago.
Hezbollah began striking Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war, The Associated Press said.
The agents spoke with CBS “60 Minutes” in a segment aired Sunday night. They wore masks and spoke with altered voices to hide their identities.
One agent said the operation started 10 years ago using walkie-talkies laden with hidden explosives, which Hezbollah didn't realize it was buying from Israel, its enemy. The walkie-talkies were not detonated until September, a day after booby-trapped pagers were set off.
“We created a pretend world,” said the officer, who went by the name “Michael.”
Phase two of the plan, using the booby-trapped pagers, kicked in in 2022 after Israel's Mossad intelligence agency learned Hezbollah had been buying pagers from a Taiwan-based company, the second officer said.
The pagers had to be made slightly larger to accommodate the explosives hidden inside. They were tested on dummies multiple times to find the right amount of explosive that would hurt only the Hezbollah fighter and not anyone else in close proximity.
Mossad also tested numerous ring tones to find one that sounded urgent enough to make someone pull the pager out of their pocket.
The second agent, who went by the name “Gabriel,” said it took two weeks to convince Hezbollah to switch to the heftier pager, in part by using false ads on YouTube promoting the devices as dustproof, waterproof, providing a long battery life and more.
He described the use of shell companies, including one based in Hungary, to dupe the Taiwanese firm, Gold Apollo, into unknowingly partnering with the Mossad.
Hezbollah also was unaware it was working with Israel.
Gabriel compared the ruse to a 1998 psychological film about a man who has no clue that he is living in a false world and his family and friends are actors paid to keep up the illusion.
“When they are buying from us, they have zero clue that they are buying from the Mossad,” Gabriel said. “We make like ‘Truman Show,’ everything is controlled by us behind the scene. In their experience, everything is normal. Everything was 100% kosher including businessman, marketing, engineers, showroom, everything.”
By September, Hezbollah militants had 5,000 pagers in their pockets.
Israel triggered the attack on Sept. 17, when pagers all over Lebanon started beeping. The devices would explode even if the person failed to push the buttons to read an incoming encrypted message.
The next day, Mossad activated the walkie-talkies, some of which exploded at funerals for some of the approximately 30 people who were killed in the pager attacks.
Gabriel said the goal was more about sending a message than actually killing Hezbollah fighters.
“If he just died, so he’s dead. But if he’s wounded, you have to take him to the hospital, take care of him. You need to invest money and efforts,” he said. “And those people without hands and eyes are living proof, walking in Lebanon, of ‘don’t mess with us.’ They are walking proof of our superiority all around the Middle East.”
In the days after the attack, Israel's air force hit targets across Lebanon, killing thousands. Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was assassinated when Israel dropped bombs on his bunker.
By November, the war between Israel and Hezbollah, a byproduct of the deadly attack by Hamas group in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, ended with a ceasefire. More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas militants, health officials have said.
The agent using the name “Michael” said that the day after the pager explosions, people in Lebanon were afraid to turn on their air conditioners out of fear that they would explode, too.
“There is real fear,” he said.
Asked if that was intentional, he said, “We want them to feel vulnerable, which they are. We can’t use the pagers again because we already did that. We’ve already moved on to the next thing. And they’ll have to keep on trying to guess what the next thing is.”