Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed for the first time on Friday that Syrian fighters are in Libya alongside training teams dispatched by Ankara.
“Turkey is there with a training force. There are also people from the Syrian National Army,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul, referring to the group of rebel fighters formerly known as the Free Syrian Army.
Last month, the warring sides agreed a ceasefire and although there have been violations they have held two rounds of talks in Geneva.
Khalifa Haftar, a military commander, said on Friday his conditions for a ceasefire were “withdrawal of Syria and Turkish mercenaries, Turkey stopping supplies of weapons to Tripoli and the liquidation of terrorist groups”.
Libya has been wracked by conflict since 2011 when a NATO-backed uprising led to the killing of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi.
