Pentagon report: Turkey sent up to 3,800 fighters to Libya

Source:Yahoo News Date:19Jul2020

The warring sides are mobilizing now around the edges of Sirte, a strategic gateway to Libya’s central and eastern oil crescent, where most of the country’s production of 1.2 million barrels a day flowed before Hifter-allied tribes choked off pipelines in January to protest unequal distribution of oil revenues to the long-neglected east.

On Friday, the National Oil Corporation warned that international powers were pulling the country toward an escalation likely to extend to the oil and gas facilities. A “large number” of Syrian, Sudanese and Russian mercenaries are occupying oil installations, most recently Libya’s largest port of Es Sidra, the corporation said.