37 Turkish-backed Syrian fighters killed in Libya, including prominent leader, in one day
Cairo – North-Press Agency
On Saturday, the Libyan National Army (LNA) revealed the results of its past week operations, which included the killings of a large number of Turkish-backed Syrian fighters which Ankara sent to the battlefields to support its project in the Middle East, and stand by the internationally-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) and militias in Tripoli.
According to an official LNA statement, within a week of operations more than 37 Turkish-backed Syrian fighters were killed in one day, as well as 30 Libyan fighters.
In a statement, the LNA said that "the armed forces units have achieved great success in the past seven days’ battles in Tripoli, and today's result is only dozens of deaths of militants, infidels, Syrian mercenaries, and Turks."
The statement continued: "the Libyan militia's dead exceeded 30, and the Syrian mercenaries were more than 37, the most prominent of whom is Abu al-Kinj Jasim, a military commander in the Syrian Suleiman Shah militia, in addition to more than 100 wounded, most of them in critical condition. Tripoli hospitals became unable to handle the ambulance requirements and required blood donors."
Available information about Jasim indicates that he was born in April 1973, and is a resident of Homs, Syria. He is a prominent field leader with the Turkish-backed Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade, and he came to Libya in December 2019 to confront the LNA for $2,000 per month. On Wednesday evening, 27 May 2020, he was killed during clashes in Alcazerma, Tripoli.
"The outcome of the past seven days is very heavy for Erdogan and his followers, and our forces' battle and victories continue," the LNA said in a statement obtained by North-Press.
Libya is witnessing dramatic changes after the armed forces pursued a policy of strategic withdrawal from a number of key areas in the vicinity of Tripoli, amid intensification of military operations during the past days.
According to information from al-Adiyat fighting legion's media center, Turkish-backed government forces of Al-Sarraj have made attempts to exert pressure on areas controlled by the LNA in the past few hours, in the Wadi al-Rabi neighborhood south of Tajura, southeast of Tripoli (about 33 kilometers away from the center of Tripoli) in order to expel a group of Turkish and Syrian officers stuck in one of the hubs, but the armed forces have eliminated the whole group.