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Reports: 2,000 Wagner Mercenaries Remain in Libya

Mass grave in Tarhuna, east of Tripoli (Department of Missing Persons)
Mass grave in Tarhuna, east of Tripoli (Department of Missing Persons)
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Reports: 2,000 Wagner Mercenaries Remain in Libya

Mass grave in Tarhuna, east of Tripoli (Department of Missing Persons)
Mass grave in Tarhuna, east of Tripoli (Department of Missing Persons)

At least 1,500 to 2,000 Wagner Group mercenaries are still in Libya after dozens were transferred to fight in Ukraine, multiple sources told Italy's Nova news agency.

A UN team of experts reported that about 2,000 fighters remained in Libya with Pantsir S-1 anti-aircraft defense systems, MiG-29 fighters, and Su-24 tactical bombers.

The Financial Times cited Western and Libyan officials saying last month that 5,000 mercenaries remain in Libya on behalf of Moscow after several were withdrawn following the war in Ukraine, the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Many Libyans complain that the "mercenaries" and foreign forces did not leave their country, despite the steps taken by the Joint Military Committee (5 + 5) under the Geneva Agreement signed in October 2020.

Libyan politicians believe tensions prompted the conflicting parties to keep foreign forces and "mercenaries" on the fronts, which reduced the demand for these elements to leave the country.

Conflicting reports about the number of "mercenaries," whether they are affiliated with "Wagner" or pro-Turkish elements, claim about 20,000 fighters are in Libya.

Libyan affairs researcher Jalal Harchaoui said that Russia took control of four major military bases in Libya before February 24 and still controls them to date.

Harchaoui noted that there was no significant withdrawal of Russian personnel from Libya in the wake of the war in Ukraine, but only modest adjustments.

In a recent press interview, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov revealed that the authorities invited the Wagner Group to Tobruk on a "commercial basis."

It is believed that the Russian "mercenaries" entered Libya when the Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, waged war on Tripoli in April 2019.

However, Libya's Prime Minister-designate Fathi Bashagha said in an article in The Times that "since 2014, thousands of mercenaries from Wagner, a private military group close to Vladimir Putin, have been in my country."

Meanwhile, the Brigade 444 of the Defense Ministry arrested a man it believes is involved in the killing and kidnapping of several victims in the mass graves in Tarhuna.

The brigade disclosed that members of its forces arrested Hatem Ali Mohammed, involved with the notorious Kaniyat militia in cases of murder and kidnapping.

Mass graves suspected to hold hundreds of bodies began to unfold after the Kaniyat militia - also known as the 9th brigade of Haftar's forces.

During the past months, the brigade announced the arrest of several suspects accused of killing, kidnapping, banditry, human trafficking, and fuel smuggling.

Earlier, the Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Libya (SASG), Stephanie Williams, visited Tarhuna accompanied by officials from the Public Prosecution Committee and the Criminal Investigations Department.

Williams said that the UN and international justice mechanisms had made significant efforts to investigate violations in Libya, including the mass graves in Tarhuna, adding that the UN will support the pursuit of justice, accountability, and an end to impunity so that the perpetrators do not go unpunished.

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Arab World

Iraq’s Newly Elected Parliament Holds First Session

A view of the Iraqi Parliament building in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (AP)
A view of the Iraqi Parliament building in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (AP)
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Iraq’s Newly Elected Parliament Holds First Session

A view of the Iraqi Parliament building in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (AP)
A view of the Iraqi Parliament building in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (AP)

Iraq's newly elected parliament convened ​on Monday for its first session since the November national election, opening the ‌way for ‌lawmakers ‌to begin ⁠the ​process ‌of forming a new government.

Parliament is due to elect a speaker and ⁠two deputies ‌during its first meeting. ‍

Lawmakers ‍must then ‍choose a new president by within 30 days of ​the first session.

The president will subsequently ⁠ask the largest bloc in parliament to form a government, a process that in Iraq typically drags on for ‌months.

Arab World

Death Toll in Attack in Syria's Latakia Rises to 4, 108 Injured

Syrian security forces are deployed in the city of Latakia, Syria, 28 December 2025. (EPA)
Syrian security forces are deployed in the city of Latakia, Syria, 28 December 2025. (EPA)
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Death Toll in Attack in Syria's Latakia Rises to 4, 108 Injured

Syrian security forces are deployed in the city of Latakia, Syria, 28 December 2025. (EPA)
Syrian security forces are deployed in the city of Latakia, Syria, 28 December 2025. (EPA)

Authorities in Syria's Latakia province announced on Monday that the death toll has risen to four from the armed attack carried out by remnants of the ousted regime on Sunday.

It added that 108 people were injured in the violence.

The Syrian Defense Ministry announced on Sunday the deployment of military forces in the coastal cities of Latakia and Tartus in wake of the attack against security forces and civilians during protests.

State television said a member of the security forces was killed and others were injured while they were protecting protests in Latakia.

Head of the security forces in the Latakia province Abdulaziz al-Ahmed said the attack was carried out by terrorist members of the former regime.

Al-Ahmed added that masked gunmen were spotted at the protests and they were identified as members of Coastal Shield Brigade and Al-Jawad Brigade terrorist groups, reported the official SANA news agency.

Arab World

Syria Secures Assad-Era Mass Grave Revealed by Reuters and Opens Criminal Investigation

A drone view of the mass grave site in the desert near the eastern Syrian town of Dhumair, February 27, 2025. (Reuters)
A drone view of the mass grave site in the desert near the eastern Syrian town of Dhumair, February 27, 2025. (Reuters)
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Syria Secures Assad-Era Mass Grave Revealed by Reuters and Opens Criminal Investigation

A drone view of the mass grave site in the desert near the eastern Syrian town of Dhumair, February 27, 2025. (Reuters)
A drone view of the mass grave site in the desert near the eastern Syrian town of Dhumair, February 27, 2025. (Reuters)

Syria’s government has ordered soldiers to guard a mass grave created to conceal atrocities under Bashar al-Assad and has opened a criminal investigation, following a Reuters report that revealed a yearslong conspiracy by the fallen dictatorship to hide thousands of bodies on the remote ​desert site.

The site, in the Dhumair desert east of Damascus, was used during Assad’s rule as a military weapons depot, according to a former Syrian army officer with knowledge of the operation.

It was later emptied of personnel in 2018 to ensure secrecy for a plot that involved unearthing the bodies of thousands of victims of the dictatorship buried in a mass grave on the outskirts of Damascus and trucking them an hour’s drive away to Dhumair.

The plot, orchestrated by the dictator’s inner circle, was called “Operation Move Earth.”

Soldiers are stationed at the Dhumair site again, this time by the government that overthrew Assad.

The Dhumair military installation was also reactivated as a barracks and arms depot in November, after seven years of disuse, according to an army officer posted there in early December, a military official and Sheikh Abu Omar Tawwaq, who is the security chief of Dhumair.

The Dhumair site ‌was completely unprotected over ‌the summer, when Reuters journalists made repeated visits after discovering the existence of a mass grave ‌there.

Within ⁠weeks ​of the ‌report in October, the new government created a checkpoint at the entrance to the military installation where the site lies, according to a soldier stationed there who spoke to Reuters in mid-December. Visitors to the site now need access permits from the Defense Ministry.

Satellite images reviewed by Reuters since late November show new vehicle activity around the main base area.

The military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the reactivation of the base is part of efforts to “secure control over the country and prevent hostile parties from exploiting this open strategic area.” The road through the desert connects one of ISIS’ remaining Syrian strongholds with Damascus.

POLICE INVESTIGATION

In November, police opened an investigation into the grave, photographing it, carrying out land surveys and interviewing witnesses, according to Jalal Tabash, head of the ⁠al-Dhumair police station. Among those interviewed by police was Ahmed Ghazal, a key source for the Reuters investigation that exposed the mass grave.

“I told them all the details I told you about the ‌operation and what I witnessed during those years,” said Ghazal, a mechanic who repaired trucks ‍carrying bodies that broke down at the Dhumair grave site.

Ghazal confirmed ‍that during the time of “Operation Move Earth,” the military installation appeared vacant except for the soldiers involved in accompanying the convoys.

Syria’s Information Ministry ‍did not respond to requests for comment about the re-activation of the base or the investigation into the mass grave.

The National Commission for Missing Persons, which was established after Assad’s ouster to investigate the fate of tens of thousands of Syrians who vanished under his rule, told Reuters it is in the process of training personnel and creating laboratories in order to meet international standards for mass grave exhumations.

Exhumations at Syria’s many Assad-era mass graves, including the site at Dhumair, are scheduled for ​2027, the commission told Reuters.

The police have referred their report on Dhumair to the Adra district attorney, Judge Zaman al-Abdullah.

Al-Abdullah told Reuters that information about Assad-era suspects involved in the Dhumair operation, both inside and outside Syria, is being cross-referenced ⁠with documents obtained by security branches after the dictator’s fall in December 2024. He would not describe the suspects, citing the ongoing investigation.

According to military documents reviewed by Reuters and testimony from civilian and military sources, logistics for “Operation Move Earth” were handled by a key man, Col. Mazen Ismander.

Contacted through an intermediary, Ismander declined to comment on the initial Reuters report or the new investigation into the mass grave.

When the conspiracy was hatched in 2018, Assad was verging on victory in the civil war and hoped to reclaim legitimacy in the international community after years of sanctions and allegations of brutality.

He had been accused of detaining and killing Syrians by the thousands, and the location of a mass grave in the Town of Qutayfah, outside Damascus, had been reported by local human rights activists.

So an order came from the presidential palace: Excavate Qutayfah and hide the bodies on the military installation in the Dhumair desert.

For four nights a week for nearly two years, from 2019 to 2021, Ismander oversaw the operation, Reuters found . Trucks hauled corpses and dirt from the exposed mass grave to the vacated military installation in the desert, where trenches were filled with bodies as the Qutayfah site was excavated.

In revealing the conspiracy, Reuters spoke to 13 people with direct ‌knowledge of the two-year effort and analyzed more than 500 satellite images of both mass graves.

Under the guidance of forensic geologists, Reuters used aerial drone photography to create high-resolution composite images that helped corroborate the transfer of bodies by showing
color changes in the disturbed soil around Dhumair’s burial trenches.