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Libyan National Army: Turkey Building Secret Military Base in Tripoli’s Mitiga Airport

A convoy vehicle is seen after reopening of the Mitiga airport in Tripoli, Libya October 29, 2019. (Reuters)
A convoy vehicle is seen after reopening of the Mitiga airport in Tripoli, Libya October 29, 2019. (Reuters)
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Libyan National Army: Turkey Building Secret Military Base in Tripoli’s Mitiga Airport

A convoy vehicle is seen after reopening of the Mitiga airport in Tripoli, Libya October 29, 2019. (Reuters)
A convoy vehicle is seen after reopening of the Mitiga airport in Tripoli, Libya October 29, 2019. (Reuters)

Turkey has started building a military base inside Mitiga International Airport in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, an informed source revealed.

The source told Asharq Al-Awsat that Turkish military and intelligence officials were present at the base.

Mitiga is the only functional airport in western Libya. Fighting forced the closure of Tripoli International Airport in 2014 and it has been shut ever since.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said Ankara is planning to bolster its military presence in Libya through a secret military base. Turkish officers are also assisting at the operations command center affiliated with militias that are loyal to the Government of National Accord (GNA).

The source’s comments coincided with reports that said Turkey was seeking to bring in more mercenaries and fighters from Kenya and Somalia to back the GNA.

Meanwhile, Libyan National Army (LNA) spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari released on Thursday video footage from inside a Turkish vessel that had unloaded modern weapons and military equipment at Tripoli port on Tuesday night.

Mismari deemed the development a Turkish “invasion” that violates all international laws and norms, as well as the ceasefire in the western region.

The spokesman also released photos of the military shipment.

France's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier this week spotted a Turkish frigate escorting a cargo ship delivering armored vehicles to Tripoli in defiance of a UN embargo, a French military source said Thursday, according to AFP.

The cargo ship Bana, sailing under a Lebanese flag, docked in Tripoli port on Wednesday, said the source, who asked not to be named.

According to the Marine Traffic specialist website, the vessel was recorded Thursday off the coast of Sicily.

The claim came a day after President Emmanuel Macron accused his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan of failing "to keep his word" to end meddling in the north African country.

Specifically, Macron said Turkish ships had in recent days been seen taking ships laden with pro-Ankara Syrian mercenaries to Libya.

Meanwhile, United Nations envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame was set to meet with LNA commander Khlifa Haftar in the eastern city of Benghazi to persuade him to join the ten-member committee that would oversee the fragile truce in Libya.

The formation of the committee was agreed during last month’s Berlin conference. It will be comprised of five members from each of the LNA and GNA.

The committee is set to meet in Geneva on Tuesday, but that has been put to doubt over Haftar’s failure to name his candidates to the body.

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Arab World

Anxiety Clouds Easter for West Bank Christians

Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP
Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP
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Anxiety Clouds Easter for West Bank Christians

Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP
Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP

In the mainly Christian Palestinian town of Zababdeh, the runup to Easter has been overshadowed by nearby Israeli military operations, which have proliferated in the occupied West Bank alongside the Gaza war.

This year unusually Easter falls on the same weekend for all of the town's main Christian communities -- Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican --- and residents have attempted to busy themselves with holiday traditions like making date cakes or getting ready for the scout parade.

But their minds have been elsewhere.

Dozens of families from nearby Jenin have found refuge in Zababdeh from the continual Israeli military operations that have devastated the city and its adjacent refugee camp this year.

"The other day, the (Israeli) army entered Jenin, people were panicking, families were running to pick up their children," said Zababdeh resident Janet Ghanam.

"There is a constant fear, you go to bed with it, you wake up with it," the 57-year-old Anglican added, before rushing off to one of the last Lenten prayers before Easter.

Ghanam said her son had told her he would not be able to visit her for Easter this year, for fear of being stuck at the Israeli military roadblocks that have mushroomed across the territory.

Zabadeh's Anglican church was busy in the runup to Easter but across the West Bank Christian communities have been in sharp decline as people emigrate in search of a better life abroad.

Zabadeh looks idyllic, nestled in the hills of the northern West Bank, but the roar of Israeli air force jets sometimes drowns out the sound of its church bells.

"It led to a lot of people to think: 'Okay, am I going to stay in my home for the next five years?'" said Saleem Kasabreh, an Anglican deacon in the town.

"Would my home be taken away? Would they bomb my home?"

- 'Existential threat' -

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and in recent months far-right ministers in its coalition government have called for the annexation of swathes of the territory.

Kasabreh said this "existential threat" was compounded by constant "depression" at the news from Gaza, where the death toll from the Israel's response to Hamas's October 2023 attack now tops 51,000, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

Work has been hard to find for Zababdeh's mainly Christian residents since Israel rescinded Palestinian work permits following the October 2023 attack by Hamas that sparked the Gaza war.

Zababdeh has been spared the devastation wreaked on Gaza, but the mayor's office says nearly 450 townspeople lost their jobs in Israel when Palestinian work permits were rescinded after the Hamas attack.

"Israel had never completely closed us in the West Bank before this war," said 73-year-old farmer Ibrahim Daoud. "Nobody knows what will happen".

Many say they are stalked by the spectre of exile, with departures abroad fuelling fears that Christians may disappear from the Holy Land.

"People can't stay without work and life isn't easy," said 60-year-old maths teacher Tareq Ibrahim.

Mayor Ghassan Daibes echoed his point.

"For a Christian community to survive, there must be stability, security and decent living conditions. It's a reality, not a call for emigration," he said.

"But I´m speaking from lived experience: Christians used to make up 30 percent of the population in Palestine; today, they are less than one percent.

"And this number keeps decreasing. In my own family, I have three brothers abroad -- one in Germany, the other two in the United States."

Catholic priest Father Elias Tabban insists the hard times his congregation has been going though have deepened their faith.

Catholic priest Elias Tabban adopted a more stoical attitude, insisting his congregation's spirituality had never been so vibrant.

"Whenever the Church is in hard times... (that's when) you see the faith is growing," Tabban said.