The scorching desert sun streams through narrow slats in the tiny window. A mouse scurries across the cracked concrete floor, the scuttling of its tiny feet drowned out by the sound of distant voices speaking in Arabic. Their chatter is in a western Libyan dialect distinctive from the eastern dialect favored in Benghazi. Somewhere off in the distance, beyond the shimmering desert horizon, is Tripoli, the jewel of Africa now reduced to perpetual war.

But here, in this cell in a dank old warehouse in Bani Walid, there are no smugglers, no rapists, no thieves or murderers. There are simply Africans captured by traffickers as they made their way from Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Eritrea, or other disparate parts of the continent seeking a life free of war and poverty, the rotten fruit of Anglo-American and European colonialism. The cattle brands on their faces tell a story more tragic than anything produced by Hollywood.

A video, allegedly showing a Russian-speaking pilot in Libya waiting for an evacuation helicopter after his aircraft had supposedly crashed, appeared online on September 7 causing a wave of speculation in mainstream media and among military enthusiasts.

The clip shows a white-and-orange parachute on the ground, in a desert-like environment, and the Russian-speaking person claims that his aircraft was shot down at around 70km and that he ejected from it at about 40km from the airfield. He claims that he is waiting for an evacuation group of helicopters while the enemy is searching for him. After a break the video resumed to show an approaching Mi-24 helicopter in colors close to those used by helicopters of the Libyan National Army (LNA).

Russia has deployed an advanced S-300 air defense system to Libya to support the forces of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar against the Turkish military and its proxies, local media reported on August 5.

According to photos surfacing online, the supposed S-300 system is deployed near the town of Ras Lanuf, a key oil export port controlled by the Libyan National Army (LNA). The town is located more than 200km away from the port city of Sirte, which the LNA is defending against Turkish-led forces.

The circulating photos supposedly show a 96L6E Cheese Board radar and a transporter erector launcher (TEL) similar to those used in S-300 and S-400 air-defense systems. This 3D early-warning and acquisition radar has a range of 300 km and can track up to 100 targets simultaneously.

Oh the irony, lost on all those whose foreign policy memory is limited to merely days or weeks ago: the United States has accused Russia of arming Libyan rebels.

So suddenly Washington thinks this is a "bad" thing?

"The Russian Federation continues to violate UN Security Council Resolution UNSCR 1970 by actively providing military equipment and fighters to the front lines of the conflict in Libya," AFRICOM said in a statement Friday.

Israeli military says it has ordered residents along Lebanese border to remain indoors after explosions and exchange of fire were reported between Israeli soldiers and Lebanese forces along Lebanon’s southern border.

The Israeli army is also closing major roads and has asked residents to avoid unnecessary trips, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in Jerusalem al-Quds that the Tel Aviv regime is “in the midst of a complicated event.”

The Pentagon has issued a new round of allegations against Russia claiming they are providing weapons and even warplanes to Gen. Khalifa Hafter’s rebel forces in Libya. They say satellite images show the transfers in the city of Sirte.

A number of nations have been backing Hafter, including the Russians. The Russian arms are alleged to have come through Wagner, a mercenary company on good terms with the Russian state. If true, they would be just one of several nations involved in arming Hafter in violation of UN embargoes.

And yet in arming Libyan factions, the US is hardly blameless. They haven’t consistently sent weapons to one group or another, because the administration has often changed its mind about who it supports, but US arms are all over Libya as well.

The Pentagon has issued a new round of allegations against Russia claiming they are providing weapons and even warplanes to Gen. Khalifa Hafter’s rebel forces in Libya. They say satellite images show the transfers in the city of Sirte.

A number of nations have been backing Hafter, including the Russians. The Russian arms are alleged to have come through Wagner, a mercenary company on good terms with the Russian state. If true, they would be just one of several nations involved in arming Hafter in violation of UN embargoes.

And yet in arming Libyan factions, the US is hardly blameless. They haven’t consistently sent weapons to one group or another, because the administration has often changed its mind about who it supports, but US arms are all over Libya as well.

On Monday, Egypt’s parliament gave military junta leader Abdel Fattah el-Sisi approval to deploy troops abroad into neighboring Libya, following up a similar authorization from Libya’s Tobruk parliament, which is loyal to Gen. Khalifa Hafter and is seeking an intervention on their behalf.

This is the latest of Hafter’s several multi-year bids to take over Libya. A military dictatorship themselves, the Sisi junta has backed Hafter heavily, seeing it as a chance to install a friendly government on their border.

Egyptian airstrikes are common, but a direct ground invasion is hugely risky, because Turkey already has troops in Libya, and they are backing the alternative government in Tripoli. This looks tailor-made to be a proxy battle over Libya.

Egypt and Turkey have ideological differences, not just that Egypt is under military rule after a coup while Turkey’s coup failed. The two both have interests in the future of Libya, Turkey for the sake of oil and gas exploration.

Via AlMasdarNews.com,

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Ankara’s stance in Libya foiled the plans of the Libyan National Army’s commander, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.

According to Erdogan, Turkey’s intervention saved the city of Tripoli from falling to the Libyan National Army (LNA) and their commander.

Erdogan continued in his interview with the Turkish magazine that “the Government of National Accord managed to get the revolutionaries out of Tripoli in a short time and these field gains heralded peace and security in all Libyan lands.”

He then boasted that it was ultimately Turkish military support to Tripoli, was had endured for much of the past year, that thwarted Haftar's advance:

“Turkey’s determined stance stifled the plans of Haftar and his supporters to occupy Tripoli.”

He said, “Strengthening Libya politically and economically will comfort North Africa and Europe.”

On June 26, the US embassy in Libya released a statement claiming that it condemns a “foreign-backed campaign to undermine Libya’s energy sector and prevent the resumption of oil production.”

The statement said that the US shares the “deep concern” of the National Oil Corporation affiliated with the Turkish-backed Government of National Accord about “the shameful interference” of foreign private military contractors against “NOC facilities and personnel at the al-Sharara oil field, which constitutes a direct assault against Libya’s sovereignty and prosperity.”

Egypt and Turkey have long been on opposite sides of the raging battle for the fate of Libya, with Turkey providing major military support and backing for the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, and with Egypt backing Gen. Khalifa Haftar.

The situation escalated over the weekend, amid a pullback of pro-Haftar forces from Tripoli after being defeated in the bid for the capital, when Egypt's President Sisi announced from an airbase near the Libyan border that the Egyptian Army stands ready to intervene in Libya on behalf of Haftar.

Sisi declared that if GNA forces attempt to enter Haftar-controlled Sirte, pushing deeper into central Libya, this would be a 'red line' for Egypt, forcing it's intervention. Crucially both Tripoli and its main ally Turkey on Sunday condemned what they called Sisi's "declaration of war".

Perhaps predictably given Erdogan's increased threats and foreign adventurism, cracks loom in the NATO alliance over Libya, leading to an official probe by Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

It started last week after France complained that Turkey is still breaking a UN arms embargo in effect on war-torn Libya. When a French frigate attempted to intercept a Turkish vessel suspected of running arms into Tripoli on June 10, it was reportedly "engaged" via radar, as if a missile strike was impending. The AP details, based on French defense sources:

According to a French defense official, the frigate Courbet was “lit up” three times by Turkish naval targeting radar when it tried to approach a Turkish civilian ship suspected of involvement in arms trafficking. The Courbet backed off after being targeted.

The French vessel was part of NATO's naval operation in the Mediterranean, Sea Guardian, at the time of the June 10 incident.

The series of debilitating military setbacks that Libya’s renegade general Khalifa Haftar suffered in recent months have spurred diplomatic activities over the conflict in the country. But the war is far from over.

Six British citizens including two former Royal Marine commandos have been accused of taking part in a botched mercenary mission to Libya to fight on behalf of renegade general Khalifa Haftar.

The five men and one woman are named in a confidential report by the United Nations panel of experts on Libya into a botched mission that ended with the mercenaries making a remarkable sea-borne escape after falling out with their hosts.

The men, including former Royal Marines Sean Callaghan Louw and Andrew Scott Ritchie, were among around 20 mercenaries who travelled to Benghazi in eastern Libya in June 2019 in a contract organised by a UAE based company called Opus, according to the report seen by the Daily Telegraph.

As the report says, UN investigators believe that that they had been hired by General Haftar's Libyan National Army to fly assault helicopters and use fast speedboats to intercept and search merchant vessels ferrying Turkish weapons to Tripoli.

Turkey began sending troops to Libya in January to shore up the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA). Before that, Ankara provided the GNA with military equipment to assist Tripoli in its ongoing campaign against the Tobruk-based government and the Libyan National Army (LNA) of Gen. Khalifa Haftar.

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy has warned that there would be serious consequences for Gen. Haftar's forces if the Libyan National Army attacked Turkish troops operating in Libya.

"We emphasize once again that in the case of striking our interest in Libya – doing so would lead to serious consequences, and we will consider Haftar’s forces a legitimate target for attack,” Aksoy said, speaking to reporters on Thursday.

Factions of the Turkish-backed opposition Syrian National Army are recruiting minors to fight in Libya, according to a report laying out in exhaustive detail Turkey’s use of Syrian rebels to prop up Libya’s Government of National Accord.

The 40-page document, prepared by Syrians for Truth and Justice and shared exclusively with Al-Monitor, cites sources on the ground in Syria and in Libya who say Syrian teenagers have been recruited and are part of their units in the battlefield. The report will be published Monday by the nonpartisan not-for-profit organization, which documents human rights abuses in Syria.

The children are among well over 2,000 Syrian rebels believed to have been deployed over the past year via Turkey in support of the Government of National Accord against the eastern warlord Khalifa Hifter, who is backed by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

It has been nearly a decade since Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy suffered an ugly demise at the hands of insurgents. Few mourned his passing. When asked about his fate, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cackled maniacally: "We came, we saw, he died."

American and European officials declared success. Another dictator down, freedom on the march, U.S. and Europe triumphant, Arabs embracing democracy, memories of Iraq excised. "Leading from behind" with bombers and drones looked to be a winning strategy.

That was then.

A withering bombardment shook Tripoli on Sunday as the eastern-based forces of Khalifa Haftar fought overnight for new territory in the southern suburbs after losing ground recently around the city.

The eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) downed two Turkish unmanned aerial vehicles as they attempted to attack its al-Watiya military airbase in the southeastern part of Tripoli, Al Arabiya broadcaster reported on 8 May.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has stated that Ankara will deem military commander Khalifa Haftar's forces "legitimate targets" if attacks against its interests and diplomatic missions continue.

"In Libya, illegal groups linked to Haftar have intensified attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in recent days, especially in Tripoli. On 9 May alone, they launched more than 100 rockets and actively shelled residential areas in central Tripoli", the ministry said.

We reported earlier how the long-running Libyan proxy war 2.0 just got hotter given now the United States is directly blaming Russia for inflaming the conflict which has seen pro-Haftar forces lay siege to the capital of Tripoli for over the past year. Both Turkey and Russia have recently come under fire for transferring thousands of mercenaries to opposing sides of the war.

On Saturday massive explosions rocked Tripoli's only functioning international airport after Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) fired "dozens of rockets" on the sprawling complex, reports Al Jazeera.

Dark times breed – maybe demand – dark humor. Iraq and Afghanistan taught me as much. The coronavirus makes it plain as day; so does Donald Trump. Look, the guy is a buffoon and – if you happen to be the wrong color or live in the wrong country – kind of a monster. But he is (sometimes) funny. I mean, that Nancy "Antoinette" Pelosi ice cream ad: "Let them eat cake [ice cream]?" It killed! (And serves notice for Uncle Joe to brace himself for what’s coming). Trump wasn’t exactly wrong about Pelosi either.

Still The Donald’s obsessions are what strike me as equal parts horrifying and hysterical. On this count, the gold standard has to be Trump’s "Thanks Obama!” meme-like propensity to blame anything and everything – including COVID-19 (and the temperature in the White House) – on his predecessor. He’s rarely right, of course, but this Trumpian proclivity reminds me of another darkly jocular anecdote.

Ankara on Wednesday accused eastern Libya’s commander Khalifa Haftar of seeking to “create a military dictatorship” and vowed to “defend” the country's Tripoli-based government.

Haftar, who controls swathes of eastern Libya, launched an offensive in April last year to seize Tripoli. He said on Monday that his self-styled army had “accepted the will of the people and its mandate.”

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said that, with this announcement, Haftar “has once again demonstrated that he does not seek a political solution to the crisis in Libya, does not support international efforts in this regard… and aims to create a military dictatorship in the country.”

Forces loyal to Libya's renegade commander Khalifa Haftar said over the weekend that Turkey is planning an 'attack' in Libya, and shortly after struck a hospital injuring at least five medics.

Haftar's self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA) spokesperson Major General Ahmed Al-Mismari said Turkey was sending military personnel and equipment to Libya, according to a Monday report.

The LNA claimed it has information on Turkey's plan to carry out a massive 'attack' on Libya’s Tarhuna city – just 65km from the capital.

Mismari said the Haftar forces would retaliate in Libya, triggering concerns for more bloodshed in the war-torn country.

Despite pleas by the United Nations and international humanitarian organisations to suspend violence, at least temporarily during the coronavirus pandemic, the Libyan civil war continues as usual.

Following an attack last Monday, water supply was cut to more than two million people in Tripoli and nearby towns. Now fierce battles are raging to the west of the Libyan capital.

The conflict between the two major rival factions is fuelled by increased international intervention and a constant supply of weapons, in blatant violation of UN sanctions and an arms embargo.

On one side stands the Tripoli-based and UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), led by the 60-year-old Fayez al-Sarraj, an architect by profession.

Lawyers for the State and Justice Departments agreed with Judicial Watch that Hillary Clinton should testify about her emails and the Benghazi incident.

The Libyan Army under the command of the Government of National Accord (GNA) has regained full control of Abu Grein town after a failed advance attempt and attacks by Khalifa Haftar's forces, said Army spokesman Mohammed Gununu on Sunday.

Gununu added that forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar had suffered major losses of lives and military equipment in their failed attack on Abu Grein, which saw heavy clashes since early Sunday.

Haftar's forces started attacks in an attempt to advance under airstrikes' cover with a multinational group of mercenaries - mainly Sudanese and Chadian - pushing GNA forces out of Qadahiya and Zamzam areas and then succeeded in entering Abu Grein with a brief control on the town for several hours.

While recent generations have shown them reluctant to expand far beyond their borders, in the past few months Turkey has shown interest in overseas military engagements. Forces have been active in northern Syria with an eye toward regime change, and Turkey has also committed to military involvement in Libya.

That’s given Turkey two potential enemies to worry about, and given them each a potential new ally. The Syrian government and Libya’s self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA) or Gen. Khalifa Haftar have agreed to cooperation, and a memorandum of understanding to confront Turkish aggression.

The LNA’s adjoining government, the eastern-based Tobruk Parliament, has confirmed it will be opening an embassy in Damascus. This will be the first Libyan embassy in Syria since the 2012 NATO-imposed regime change in Libya.

Erdogan is urging US and NATO help to halt the Syrian-Russian offensive in Idlib, and elsewhere Libya is also turning into a full-blown major conflict involving external powers, notably also Turkey which is providing military support to Tripoli against Gen. Haftar's offensive. Turkey and Syria are currently downing each other's aircraft over Idlib province in a major escalation.

And now the Marine Traffic maritime information portal has identified along with other international reports that the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (or "Ike") crossed through the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean Sea late Friday into Saturday, accompanied by multiple support ships.

Libya’s security chief called on the U.S. to set up a base in the North African country to counterbalance Russia’s expanding influence in Africa.

Fathi Bashagha, interior minister for the Tripoli-based administration, said his government proposed hosting a base after Secretary of Defense Mark Esper laid out plans to scale back the U.S. military presence on the continent and re-focus deployments globally on confronting Russia and China. Bashagha’s government has been engaged in a months-long battle with forces trying to seize the capital led by eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar, who’s backed by Russian mercenaries.

This is hugely revealing of where Washington stands on the now nine year old Libya conflict, which has recently seen former CIA asset Gen. Khalifa Haftar attempt to force the country under his control by his months-long assault on the capital of Tripoli.

US Ambassador to Libya Richard Norland, who had set up the embassy outside the country in neighboring Tunisia, for the first time this week visited the war-torn country which was thrown into chaos by the 2011 US-NATO intervention against Gaddafi.

Ambassador Norland met only with Gen. Haftar, head of the Libyan National Army (LNA), in Benghazi and reportedly didn't even go to Tripoli.

Just after the EU’s foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell urged Europe to "develop an appetite for power" to better chart its own independent course in solving various international crises impacting Europe, the EU has agreed to deploy warships in order to enforce a United Nations arms embargo on the war-torn country.

The EU has stressed, however, that this is not an extension of its prior controversial mission to rescue migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean:

Josep Borrell, the EU’s chief diplomat, announced that 27 foreign ministers had agreed to launch a new operation with naval ships, planes and satellites in order to enforce the UN arms embargo on Libya.

Ankara previously deployed military advisors and instructors to Libya to support the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) against the Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Khalifa Haftar.

Ibrahim Kalin, the spokesman of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that Ankara can’t confirm claims that its vessel has been destroyed in the port of Tripoli, Libya.

“The ship was fired at, but there was no hit. Multiple shots were fired in return. I can say that after this the situation calmed down,” Kalin told reporters.

With more weapons flooding into the country and no real peace talks, the various combatant factions in Libya are all gearing up for a protracted civil war. This is true both of the large groups, like Khalifa Hafter’s Libyan National Army (LNA) and the UN-backed unity government, and smaller tribal groups.

With fighting looking to get worse, not better, the oil ports of Libya are under a state of blockade, with LNA forces and allies controlling the area, and everyone demanding a bigger cut of revenue to let the unity government restore shipments.

UN efforts to keep arms out of the country are failing miserably, and now every group sees new fighting as inevitable and is snatching up as many weapons for themselves as possible before that new round of violence.

Via AlMasdarNews.com,

The Libyan National Army (LNA) announced that Turkey had deployed two Turkish warships, anti-aircraft missiles and air defense systems to the capital city of Tripoli.

In addition to this accusation, the LNA said the Turkish military sent at least 3,000 Syrian militants to Libya since late December.

“The number of Syrian mercenaries transported by Turkey to Libya exceeded three thousand,” the Libyan National Army spokesman, Major General Ahmed al-Mesmari said at a press conference yesterday evening, noting that “Ankara transported dangerous terrorists from Syria to Libya through the Misrata and Mitiga airports and Port of Tripoli.”

With the world's attention focused on the Coronavirus outbreak and to a lesser extent on Trump's impeachment trial, the war in Libya just got a lot more scary in terms of the potential for mass civilian death.

Incredibly, Gen. Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) just threatened to shoot down civilian planes after days ago declaring a 'no fly zone' over Tripoli following increased Turkish intervention. The BBC reports the unambiguous and shocking declaration as follows:

Gen Haftar's spokesman, Ahmad al-Mesmari, said in a statement on Wednesday that "any military or civilian aircraft, regardless of its affiliation, flying over the capital will be destroyed".

Libya’s national oil company has declared a “state of emergency” after exports of its oil from the ports in the eastern part of the country were blocked by forces loyal to the Libyan National Army's General Khalifa Haftar.
The Petroleum Facilities Guard – a militia that controls major export terminals in eastern Libya – has ordered local subsidiaries of the National Oil Corporation (NOC), who run them, to cease all operations, the firm said in a statement.

The move makes any export of oil from Libya impossible, the company then warned, adding that it would lead to losses in crude oil production amounting to 800,000 barrels per day, as well as daily financial losses estimated at about $55 million.

CAIRO (Sputnik) - The Libyan National Army (LNA) announced on Friday that it had taken control of roads leading to the Tripoli airport and was set for major battles for main areas of the Libyan capital.

The news comes a day after information surfaced that the rival Tripoli-based government has officially requested military aid from Turkey.

"The LNA is advancing after violent clashes on roads that lead to the center of the capital. The GNA retreated leaving bodies lying on the road to Tripoli airport", the LNA wrote on Facebook, as quoted by Al Arabiya.

LNA spokesman Ahmed Mismari, in turn, told the TV channel said that the next few hours would surprise all those following the developments in Libya, saying that the battle for Tripoli was ongoing.

Mohammed Al-Khalid Kalo
@Ka9lo

CAIRO (Sputnik) - The Libyan National Army (LNA) announced on Friday that it had taken control of roads leading to the Tripoli airport and was set for major battles for main areas of the Libyan capital.

The news comes a day after information surfaced that the rival Tripoli-based government has officially requested military aid from Turkey.

"The LNA is advancing after violent clashes on roads that lead to the center of the capital. The GNA retreated leaving bodies lying on the road to Tripoli airport", the LNA wrote on Facebook, as quoted by Al Arabiya.

LNA spokesman Ahmed Mismari, in turn, told the TV channel said that the next few hours would surprise all those following the developments in Libya, saying that the battle for Tripoli was ongoing.

Mohammed Al-Khalid Kalo
@Ka9lo

Bloomberg has confirmed on Friday the prior rumors that Turkey will be sending mercenaries to Libya — where it is propping up the UN-backed government in Tripoli (the GNA) — are true. "Turkey is preparing to deploy troops and naval forces to support the internationally-recognized Libyan government, joining a planned push by Ankara-backed Syrian rebels to defeat strongman Khalifa Haftar," reports Bloomberg.

Though Ankara has yet to confirm or deny the new reports, Erdogan's Turkey has for years overseen a Libya-to-Turkey-to-Syria arms "rat line" which saw both heavy weaponry and jihadists fighters transported for the purpose of toppling Assad. But now with Erdogan's eyes set on defeating Benghazi-based General Khalifa Haftar, it appears this arms and jihadist rat line has conveniently been reversed.

SOURCE: ZERO HEDGE
As we predicted the Libyan war 2.0 has spilled into the Mediterranean and now standings on the brink of becoming a major renewed international proxy conflict bringing in regional powers, especially Turkey, Egypt, and potentially Russia.

The pro-Haftar Libyan National Army (LNA), based in the war-torn country's east, announced late Saturday it seized a Turkish vessel and briefly detained several Turkish crew members while the freighter was searched for weapons. "A vessel under the flag of Grenada, with a team of Turkish citizens on board, was detained," the LNA press service said. It was seized “because it entered Libya’s territorial waters without prior permission,” the LNA spokesman added.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey may need to draft a bill to allow for troop deployment to Libya and its parliament is working on the issue, Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Tuesday, after Ankara signed a military cooperation agreement with Tripoli last month.

“There might be a need for an authorisation in line with the developments over there. The parliament is conducting work on this issue,” Kalin told a news conference in Ankara.

“We will continue to support the internationally recognised Libyan government. This support may be in terms of military training, or other areas, such as political support,” Kalin said.

A new wave of mercenaries from Sudan is fighting in Libya, deepening concerns that the conflict in the north African state has descended into an intractable international war that could destabilise much of the region.

Leaders of two different groups of Sudanese fighters active in Libya have told the Guardian that they had received hundreds of new recruits in recent months. Both groups were fighting with the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by General Khalifa Haftar against the internationally recognised government in Tripoli.

“A lot of young men [are coming] … we even do not have the capacity to accommodate these big numbers,” said one commander who is based in the south of Libya.

The commanders said that there are at least 3,000 Sudanese mercenaries now fighting in Libya, significantly more than most previous estimates.

UN-recognised government in Tripoli says it will boost cooperation with Ankara, sources tell Al Jazeera.

A week ago Erdogan said that he was ready to deploy troops to Libya on short notice. Today rumors appeared in Arab media, still unconfirmed, that Turkish special operations forces landed in Tripoli.

The Libyan war between two Libyan parties will now become a very different beast. Egypt will not tolerate a Muslim Brotherhood led Libya as its neighbor. Before the Turkish support allows the GNA government to defeat Haftar Egypt will intervene. The situation can thereby soon develop into an intense war during which Turkish troops fight on Libyan grounds against the Egyptian military.

Both countries have rich Arab sponsors who can finance a long and intense conflict. Both have lots of material and many many soldiers who they can throw into the fight. The Egyptian side has one advantage. Its long land border allows for easy resupply while Turkey will have to rely on supplies that come by sea and air and can be cut off or at least interrupted.

The years-long war for post-Gaddafi Libya now threatens to spill over into the Mediterranean as Turkey and Greece line up on either side of the conflict. Each side is now threatening the others' allied ships in southern waters after a controversial maritime deal expanded Turkish claims off Libya's coast.

On Thursday Benghazi-based General Kalifa Haftar declared his Libyan National Army has begun its "final decisive battle" to wrest control of the capital of Tripoli from the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA).

"Zero hour has come for the broad and total assault expected by every free and honest Libyan," Haftar said in a televised address, reports Al Jazeera. "Today, we announce the decisive battle and the advancement towards the heart of the capital to set it free... advance now our heroes." Beginning eight months ago Haftar launched a siege of Tripoli, which has been stalled in recent months.

Turkey and Libya have signed an expanded maritime, security and military cooperation agreement which gives Turkey the right to deploy troops there if requested by authorities in Tripoli, President Erdogan has told state-run TRT television in an interview on Monday.

"In the event of such a call coming, it is Turkey's decision what kind of initiative it will take here." Erdogan said, as reported by Reuters. "We will not seek the permission of anyone on this," he underscored.

The Israeli government has increased discretionary spending on settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory by 50 per cent over the last two years, reported the Jerusalem Post.

According to data published by settlement watchdog Peace Now, so-called “discretionary spending” “is expenditure by various ministries outside the general budget, including from the Interior, Housing, Education, and Energy and Water ministries, as well as the National Roads Authority”.

These funds are directed towards the construction of settlement housing units, as well as for roads inside the settlements, “buildings for educational, social and religious purposes, commercial centres and industrial parks”, the report added.

SOURCE: MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
The Israeli government is aiming to increase the volume of Israel’s defence exports, reported Globes, which has revealed the main points of the plan for the first time.

The project, being overseen by the Defence Ministry’s International Defence Cooperation Directorate (SIBAT) led by Brigadier General (Res.) Yair Kulas, will begin to be rolled out in early 2020.

According to Globes, the plan is based on “focused seminars for senior commanders in foreign armies”, Israeli military “assistance for promoting sales of Israeli weapons”, and “subsidising small and medium-sized defence companies seeking to sell arms around the world”.

Speaking this week, Kulas said that SIBAT favours a major expansion of agreements between countries, resulting in significant deals for the large defence companies, especially Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Rafael Advanced Defence Systems.

Starting last April President Trump caught many in his own administration off guard when he unexpectedly thanked renegade General Khalifa Haftar for "securing Libya's oil resources" at a moment the rebel leader assaulted the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.

The public praise and phone call between Trump and the former CIA-backed warlord was a shock at the time given the US has maintained a policy of only recognizing the GNA in line with UN allies.

But now that continued recognition appears to be shifting fast after this week Trump admin officials held multiple meetings with an official representing Haftar's political team named Aref al-Nayed, expected to hold a top leadership position once Tripoli is 'liberated' by Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA).

The United States has called on Libyan renegade General Khalifa Haftar to stop a months-long offensive on Tripoli and said it would back the country’s internationally recognised government against "Russia’s attempts to exploit the conflict".

The statement was the most explicit call by Washington against the self-styled Libyan National Army of Haftar, who was earlier praised by President Donald Trump.

"The United States calls on the 'Libyan National Army’ to end its offensive on Tripoli," the US State Department said in a joint statement released on Thursday after talks with a delegation from Libya’s Tripoli-based Government of National Accord in Washington.

Libya has been split between rival camps based in Tripoli and the east since 2014, a result of the divisions that surfaced following the NATO-backed overthrow of long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi three years earlier.

In what marks a major shift in US policy in Libya, the US State Department issued a statement late Thursday demanding that Gen. Khalifa Hafter and his self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA) stop trying to conquer the capital city of Tripoli.

The US had initially opposed the LNA invasion of Tripoli in April, but following a talking-to from Saudi Arabia and other nations seen as pro-Hafter, President Trump endorsed Hafter and suggested he’s going to play a big role in Libya in the future. This remained the US position up until now.

The change seems to be a function of recent news about Russia backing Hafter, with the State Department accusing Russia of “exploiting the conflict against the will of the Libyan people.”

A former general in the Gadhafi-era military, Hafter later was a CIA asset and participated in several failed coups d’etat. His force has substantial territory in eastern Libya, but has struggled to move deep into Tripoli.

A new report in Axios suggests that Russia has significantly increased its presence in war-torn Libya, perhaps seeking to clean up the mess left in the wake of the US-NATO led regime change war which toppled Muammar Gaddafi.

This after a recent NY Times investigation found that at least 200 Russian mercenaries from Wagner Group have been in Libya supporting renegade General Khalifa Haftar's offensive against the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.

Eight years after Gaddafi's overthrow and brutal field execution at the hands of NATO-backed rebel Islamists, the oil and gas abundant country is still in the throes of grinding factional civil war.

Interior Minister for Tripoli's GNA Fathi Bashagha told Axios the unfolding “proxy war” will doom the country to become “a haven for terrorists and extremists” unless the US steps in again.

One of the 3,000 Hillary Clinton emails released by the State Department on New Year’s Eve (where real news is sent to die quietly) has revealed evidence that NATO’s plot to overthrow Gaddafi was fueled by first their desire to quash the gold-backed African currency, and second the Libyan oil reserves.

The email in question was sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by her unofficial adviser Sydney Blumenthal titled “France’s client and Qaddafi’s gold”.

US Africa Command issued a statement on Wednesday reporting that airstrikes against the southern Libyan town of Murzuq killed at least 11 people. The US statement declared everyone slain a “suspected militant.”

The US statement said they intended to kill ISIS members, and they believe they did so. This is the second strike against Murzuq in the past week by the US, with everyone slain as yet an unnamed “suspect.”

The UN expressed concern about the strikes, warning that “the conflict risks escalating to a full-blown civil war,” and faulting “external actors” for their involvement in the clashes.

Recently made public FBI records reveal that the agency virtually ignored evidence from private GOP-backed sources about a scheme in which Hillary Clinton associates tried to exploit her position as Secretary of State in order to profit from the 2011 turmoil in Libya she helped to create, according to RealClearInvestigations.

The documents, provided to the FBI in June 2016 as the agency was kicking its Trump-Russia investigation into high gear, allege that Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal sent her "a series of detailed memos and reports about Libya," which were intended as a "quid pro quo" which might help a post-Gaddafi Libya recover as much as $66 billion in offshore funds hidden by the slain strongman.

Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar will press on with his five-month offensive to capture Tripoli despite mounting international calls for a cease-fire and talks, according to his spokesman.

In an interview in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, General Ahmed al-Mismari dismissed the internationally-recognized prime minister, Fayez al-Sarraj, as powerless and negotiations as futile. “The man was unable to sign a single paper,” he said of Sarraj. “He would always give the excuse that he needed to hold consultations. We’ve exhausted all good offices.”

The expanding chaos of the renewed war in Libya, increasingly a 'failed state' if there ever was a prime example of one, now approaching a decade on from its so-called "liberation" in 2011 by US-NATO forces, keeps providing daily and weekly reminders of the Obama-Hillary Clinton legacy of 'humanitarian intervention'.

On Saturday what is being reported as either a car bomb or possibly a roadside bomb ripped through a neighborhood in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi near United Nations offices.

The blast killed two UN staff, identified as United Nations Libya mission (UNSMIL) guards, with an additional ten people wounded, some among them children, according to Reuters.