SOHR: Payments of Turkish-backed mercenaries deducted and delayed
Discontent prevails among Turkish-backed Syrian mercenaries in Libya over commanders deducting and delaying of their salaries, SOHR reports.
Turkish-backed mercenaries sent earlier from Syria to Libya have expressed their anger over their deducted and delayed payments, reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
According to SOHR sources, the commanders of Turkish-backed factions, including “Al-Hamza Division”, “Suleiman Shah”, “Al-Jabha Al-Shamiyyah” and “Al-Mu’tasem Brigade”, deliberately delay payment of the mercenaries’ salaries. Furthermore, these commanders deduct 100 to 300 USD of the monthly salary of each fighter.
“On the other hand, mercenaries demanded the Turks give them their money directly, instead to delivering salaries to their commanders. It is worth noting that one of the prominent reasons behind delaying the Turkish-backed fighters’ salaries is the fact that that the commanders speculate in the Stock Exchange with this money.”
A few days ago, SOHR sources reported that the issue of the Ankara-backed Syrian mercenaries came to the fore again, especially since the Turkish government took no action on this issue for a while, as the return of fighters from Libya to Syria has been suspended for 43 days, specifically from mid-November, amid reports of expected return of new batches of fighters in early 2021. However, no information was reported on the reasons behind keeping these mercenaries in Libya.
On the other hand, SOHR stated that some 2,000 Syrian mercenaries, recruited by the Russian company Wagner and sent to fight alongside the forces of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar during the military operations, were also maintained there.
“It is worth noting that the number of recruits who arrived in Libya approximated 18,000 Syrian mercenaries, including 350 children under the age of 18, of whom 10,750 returned to Syria after completing the duration of their contracts and receiving their financial dues. While the number of jihadists who were transported from Syria to Libya reached 10,000, of whom there were 2,500 Tunisians. It is also worth noting that the number of fatalities among the Turkish-backed Syrian factions in Libya reached 496,” the Observatory said.
