The war in Libya has taken a dramatic turn with reports of Turkey deploying Syrian rebels to support its allies in Tripoli. Videos posted on social media showed Syrian fighters claiming to have already arrived in Libya.
This comes at a time when Turkey is preparing to deploy troops into Libya to support its ally the leader of Libya’s Government of National Accord, Fayez Al Sarraj.
Turkey's parliament will vote on the issue on January 8 or 9. If passed, Turkey could send naval forces and troops to the African nation, which has been in turmoil since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
A Turkish official and a senior GNA official said rebel groups that fought alongside Turkish forces in northern Syria are expected to deploy to support the Tripoli government imminently, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
Reports emerged of the Mutasem grouping, from the Free Syrian Army, had already arrived in Libya and started fighting on the ground.
Rami Abdulrahman, head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said as many as 500 Turkmen Syrian fighters have already been recruited in Turkey ahead of deployment to Libya.
“They are recruiting the fighters from different factions” of Syria’s opposition groups, Mr Abdul Rahman said.
The rumoured deployment of rebels comes just days after Mr Erdogan said the Turkish parliament would vote on a motion to send troops to Libya in a bid to bolster the government in Tripoli against Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army.
Aguila Saleh, leader of Libya's Parliament called Mr Erdogan’s move “unacceptable”, saying it would constitute unwanted meddling in the affairs of a friendly country.
The speaker also urged the international community to reject the legitimacy of the war-torn country's UN-recognised government, which is pursuing closer military ties with Turkey.
A joint statement from Mr Saleh and his Cypriot counterpart Demetris Syllouris also reiterated their condemnation of a maritime border agreement that Turkey signed with Libya’s Tripoli-based government — but which hasn’t been ratified, as necessary, by the Libyan parliament — as a “flagrant violation of international law that’s devoid of any legal basis.”
"In the coming days, the Libyan parliament will take action to ensure the withdrawal of international recognition of this government," parliament speaker Mr Saleh said in Cyprus.
Mr Saleh said he had asked Cypriot Foreign Minister Nicos Christodoulides to "convey a message to the European Union so that it withdraws its recognition of this government (the GNA).
"It is time to form a new government supported by the Libyan people and parliament."
According to the Cyprus News Agency, Mr Saleh said that Mr Sarraj isn’t authorised to sign any agreements on his own because according to an agreement on how the Libyan government should function, any agreement needs to have the unanimous approval of the nine-member presidential council and also requires parliamentary approval.
Speaking through an interpreter, Mr Saleh said Mr Erdogan took advantage of the divisions within Libya, as well as Tripoli’s control by “terrorist groups” to get the agreements approved in order to intervene in Libya’s internal affairs.
Mr Erdogan “sent in the past unmanned aerial vehicles and armoured vehicles, different types of weapons and has recently announced that he would send troops to fight in Libya,” Mr Saleh said.
Turkey has already sent military supplies to the GNA despite a United Nations arms embargo, a UN report released last month found.
Turkey has long backed the GNA in its fight against Field Marshal Haftar's Libyan National Army based in the east of the country.
Earlier this month, Field Marshal Haftar announced a “decisive battle" to wrest Tripoli from the GNA government.
A video claiming to show Syrian fighters in Libya had a fighter saying "The Free Syrian Army is in Libya to defend Islam"
Arnaud Delalande, a defence analyst specialising in Libyan affairs called the claims of pro-Turkey Syrian fighters immediately joining the conflict “pure gesture and rhetoric”.
Turkey is seeking to position itself as a major power player along the Mediterranean Sea, from Syria to Libya.
The proposed use of rebel groups to counter Field Marshal Haftar’s forces raises concerns of an escalation which would be difficult to rein in once unleashed.
Hassan Al Houni, a Libyan official who acts as a senior adviser to the prime minister, on Saturday denied that Syrian rebels will be deployed to Libya.
In Rome, asked about possible Turkish military action in Libya in support of Mr Sarraj's forces, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said he had tried to discourage any attempt at a military solution for Libya.
Mr Conte, who discussed Libya with Mr Erdogan in a phone call last week, told reporters on Saturday that a "proxy war" in the North African country across the Mediterranean from Italy would only aggravate the "incredible fragmentation" there.
"I implored Turkish President Erdogan" against military involvement, Mr Conte said.
Mr Conte called for stepped-up diplomatic pressure for a political solution, and said Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio might soon return to Libya to work for a "cessation of hostilities."
The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Ethree%20three%20212.7kWh%20motors%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%201%2C000bhp%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E15%2C600Nm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERange%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20530km%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dh500%2C000%2B%20est%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Eearly%202023%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
6 UNDERGROUND
Director: Michael Bay
Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Adria Arjona, Dave Franco
2.5 / 5 stars
The biog
Name: Younis Al Balooshi
Nationality: Emirati
Education: Doctorate degree in forensic medicine at the University of Bonn
Hobbies: Drawing and reading books about graphic design
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
The specs
Engine: 2-litre 4-cylinder and 3.6-litre 6-cylinder
Power: 220 and 280 horsepower
Torque: 350 and 360Nm
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Price: from Dh136,521 VAT and Dh166,464 VAT
On sale: now
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
More on animal trafficking
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
War
Director: Siddharth Anand
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Ashutosh Rana, Vaani Kapoor
Rating: Two out of five stars
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
How Alia's experiment will help humans get to Mars
Alia’s winning experiment examined how genes might change under the stresses caused by being in space, such as cosmic radiation and microgravity.
Her samples were placed in a machine on board the International Space Station. called a miniPCR thermal cycler, which can copy DNA multiple times.
After the samples were examined on return to Earth, scientists were able to successfully detect changes caused by being in space in the way DNA transmits instructions through proteins and other molecules in living organisms.
Although Alia’s samples were taken from nematode worms, the results have much bigger long term applications, especially for human space flight and long term missions, such as to Mars.
It also means that the first DNA experiments using human genomes can now be carried out on the ISS.
Results
Men's finals
45kg:Duc Le Hoang (VIE) beat Zolfi Amirhossein (IRI) points 29-28. 48kg: Naruephon Chittra (THA) beat Joseph Vanlalhruaia (IND) TKO round 2.
51kg: Sakchai Chamchit (THA) beat Salam Al Suwaid (IRQ) TKO round 1. 54kg: Veerasak Senanue (THA) beat Huynh Hoang Phi (VIE) 30-25.
57kg: Almaz Sarsembekov (KAZ) beat Tak Chuen Suen (MAC) RSC round 3. 60kg: Yerkanat Ospan (KAZ) beat Ibrahim Bilal (UAE) 30-27.
63.5kg: Abil Galiyev (KAZ) beat Nouredine Samir (UAE) 29-28. 67kg: Narin Wonglakhon (THA) beat Mohammed Mardi (UAE) 29-28.
71kg: Amine El Moatassime (UAE) w/o Shaker Al Tekreeti (IRQ). 75kg: Youssef Abboud (LBN) w/o Ayoob Saki (IRI).
81kg: Ilyass Habibali (UAE) beat Khaled Tarraf (LBN) 29-28. 86kg: Ali Takaloo (IRI) beat Emil Umayev (KAZ) 30-27.
91kg: Hamid Reza Kordabadi (IRI) beat Mohamad Osaily (LBN) RSC round 1. 91-plus kg: Mohammadrezapoor Shirmohammad (IRI) beat Abdulla Hasan (IRQ) 30-27.
Women's finals
45kg: Somruethai Siripathum (THA) beat Ha Huu Huynh (VIE) 30-27. 48kg: Thanawan Thongduang (THA) beat Colleen Saddi (PHI) 30-27.
51kg: Wansawang Srila Or (THA) beat Thuy Phuong Trieu (VIE) 29-28. 54kg: Ruchira Wongsriwo (THA) beat Zeinab Khatoun (LBN) 30-26.
57kg: Sara Idriss (LBN) beat Zahra Nasiri Bargh (IRI) 30-27. 60kg: Kaewrudee Kamtakrapoom (THA) beat Sedigheh Hajivand (IRI) TKO round 2.
63.5kg: Nadiya Moghaddam (IRI) w/o Reem Al Issa (JOR).
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
FFP EXPLAINED
What is Financial Fair Play?
Introduced in 2011 by Uefa, European football’s governing body, it demands that clubs live within their means. Chiefly, spend within their income and not make substantial losses.
What the rules dictate?
The second phase of its implementation limits losses to €30 million (Dh136m) over three seasons. Extra expenditure is permitted for investment in sustainable areas (youth academies, stadium development, etc). Money provided by owners is not viewed as income. Revenue from “related parties” to those owners is assessed by Uefa's “financial control body” to be sure it is a fair value, or in line with market prices.
What are the penalties?
There are a number of punishments, including fines, a loss of prize money or having to reduce squad size for European competition – as happened to PSG in 2014. There is even the threat of a competition ban, which could in theory lead to PSG’s suspension from the Uefa Champions League.
The specs: 2018 Chevrolet Trailblazer
Price, base / as tested Dh99,000 / Dh132,000
Engine 3.6L V6
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power 275hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque 350Nm @ 3,700rpm
Fuel economy combined 12.2L / 100km
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5