Turkey is considering sending allied Syrian fighters to Libya as part of planned military support for the besieged government in Tripoli, senior Turkish sources said on Monday, potentially bringing more foreign influence into the complex conflict.
Two senior Turkish government officials and two security officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said Ankara had not yet deployed any Syrian fighters to Libya.
“But evaluations are being made and meetings are being held on this issue, and there is a tendency to go in this direction,” said one official, adding no decision had been made on numbers.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitor, cited sources saying 300 Turkey-backed Syrian fighters had been sent to Libya while others were training in Turkish camps.
However, a spokesman for the Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) on Monday denied that Ankara had made a request to send FSA fighters to Libya.
A military source within the FSA said the FSA was not being deployed to Libya, but that Syrian fighters in Syria and Turkey had signed up on an individual basis, for a salary, to work as “bodyguards” for a Turkish security company to protect bases and headquarters which Turkish forces will use in Libya.