US to send troops to Tunisia in support of Turkish forces and Islamist terrorists in neighbouring Libya

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Nureddin Sabir, Editor, Redress Information & Analysis, writes:

The United States intends to dispatch a military brigade to Tunisia, the US Africa Command (Africom), the force dedicated to intervening in African countries, has announced. 

“As Russia continues to fan the flames of the Libyan conflict, regional security in North Africa is a heightened concern,” Africom said in a statement on 29 May. Two days earlier, Africom claimed that Russia had delivered 14 MiG-29 and Su-24 fighter jets to the Libyan National Army’s (LNA) Jufra air base, a claim that has been denied by the Russians and the LNA.

Since April 2019 the LNA has been fighting to liberate the Libyan capital Tripoli and the 15 per cent of the country still controlled by the unelected “Government of National Accord” (GNA). 

The GNA is backed by the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda and myriad other Islamist terrorist groups, organised crime groups, notably people and oil smugglers, Qatar and Turkey. Turkey has been particularly active in its support of the GNA, bringing in at least 10,100 Syrian mercenaries and jihadists into Libya and participating directly in attack on LNA forces. 

On 28 May, David Schenker, an Israel lobbyist working as US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, gave an interview to France 24 in which he indicated that Washington is not averse to a takeover of Libya by the Muslim Brotherhood and its prodigies, Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda, and the other Islamist terrorists for which the GNA acts as an umbrella. He also strenuously avoided criticising the massive Turkish military intervention in aid of the Islamists in Libya. 

In light of this, Africom’s announcement that it intends to dispatch a so-called “Security Force Assistance Brigade” to Tunisia can therefore be seen as a move to secure supply lines from Tunisia to Turkish forces, Syrian mercenaries and the GNA’s Islamist terrorist and crime syndicate militias deployed west of Tripoli. 

In a statement, Tunisia’s Defence Ministry said the US was a main partner in the effort to build its army’s operational capability. This can only be laughed at given persistent reports that Tunisia had long been acting as a conduit for Turkish arms supplies to the GNA militias — a duplicitous role given its repeated pledges of neutrality in the Libyan conflict. 


This article first appeared in Dateline Libya, a Redress Information & Analysis page dedicated to the conflict in Libya.

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