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In Stunning Reversal, Turkey Emerges as Libya Kingmaker

(New York Times) Declan Walsh - A string of victories by Turkish-backed forces in western Libya this week dealt a heavy blow to the ambitions of strongman Khalifa Hifter and signaled the arrival of Turkey as a potentially decisive force in the Middle East's biggest proxy war. Libyan fighters backed by Turkish firepower on Monday captured a major airbase west of Tripoli, using drones to destroy newly arrived Russian air defense batteries. Over a year ago, Hifter began an offensive to capture Tripoli and appeared to have the upper hand. But on Wednesday, soldiers loyal to the government in Tripoli paraded through central Libya with a captured air defense system, built by Russia and financed by the UAE, in a pointed humiliation of Hifter's powerful foreign backers. Yet Turkey's dramatic gains were by no means conclusive. Fathi Bashagha, the Tripoli government's interior minister, told Bloomberg on Thursday that eight Soviet-era jets, escorted by two newer Russian fighter jets, had flown from a base in Syria to boost Hifter.
2020-05-22 00:00:00
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