550 Turkish-backed mercenaries return from Libya to Syria

Nearly 550 Turkish-backed mercenaries return from Libya to Syria in a week, after completing duration of their contracts.

Monitoring the involvement of Syrian fighters in Libyan war, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that a new batch of some 550 fighters returned from Libya to Syria during the past week, after completing the duration of their contracts, as Turkish government had turned them into mercenaries and threw them into military operations in Libya for serving Turkey’s regional interests.

On the other hand, SOHR cited confirmed reports as saying that there are disagreements among the Syrian fighters in Libya over stall of paying their monthly salaries by some group commanders.

According to SOHR statistics, the number of recruits who arrived in Libya rose to nearly 18,000 Syrian mercenaries, including 350 children under the age of 18, of whom 9,850 returned to Syria after completing the duration of their contracts and receiving their financial dues. It is worth noting that the number of jihadists who were transported from Syria to Libya reached 10,000, of whom there were 2,500 Tunisians.

On September 26, SOHR confirmed that a new batch of more than 1,400 Turkish-backed Syrian mercenaries returned from Libya to Syria, after completing the duration of their contracts.

SOHR sources reported earlier this month that a new batch of some 800 fighters have returned from Libya to Syria, after completing the duration of their contracts. Accordingly, the number of mercenaries who returned to Syria, after being sent earlier by the Turkish government to fight in Libya, exceeded 2,200 in just one week.