A growing number of opposition fighters from Syria's north have been contracted by Ankara to fight in Libya, raising the risk that a new generation of foreign fighters could further destabilize Libya and the region.
At least 2,000 Syrian militiamen have been recruited by Ankara to fight in Libya for a monthly wage of $2,000 and the promise of Turkish citizenship — an attractive offer for those in Syrian opposition-held areas where salaries are a tiny fraction of that number — according to multiple media reports.
"Libyan Airlines and private planes have been spotted landing in Libya, and many people I have contact with on the ground confirm they are carrying Syrian fighters," the journalist Mirco Keilberth, who covers the region, said.
The Guardian newspaper reported that at least 650 fighters have been enlisted in northern Syria and transported to Libya through Turkey in the past two months, with a further 1,350 en route or currently training in Turkey. They have been given a six-month contract signed with the UN-backed government of Fayez Sarraj, rather than the Turkish military.
Ankara is also paying for the medical bills of injured soldiers and returning the dead to Syria, up to 14 of whom have already been repatriated, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
Frederic Wehrey at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said there are plans for an additional 6,000 Syrian fighters, quoting a former Syrian officer on the front in the western capital of Tripoli, which has been under siege from Khalifa Haftar's forces since April last year.
