Tripoli Requests Assistance from Turkish Troops against Insurgency

An unnamed official from the UN-recognized body governing Libya has now confirmed that the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) asked Ankara to send troops to help fend off an insurgency led by a renegade general based in Benghazi. There was some confusion after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told members of his ruling AK Party on Thursday that soldiers would be on their way to Libya by early January even though the GNA’s interior minister, when queried the same day by reporters, indicated that such a request had yet to be issued. In an effort to boost ties in the region, Erdogan’s government signed a cooperation agreement with the GNA last month over Ankara’s search for carbon-based energy resources in contested Mediterranean waters, with an understanding that in return, Turkey would assist Tripoli in facing down the rebels. The self-styled Libyan National Army led by renegade general Khalifa Haftar has taken territory in an offensive that began earlier this year, with its forces – reportedly backed up by Russian mercenaries – besieging southern Tripoli since the summer.