Afraid to be abandoned by Turkey and under the continuous attacks and advance of Libyan National Army forces, Syrian mercenaries who came to Libya to represent Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are now living in a difficult situation after Turkey has given up the payment of their salaries, which amount to 2000 dollars per person in exchange for fighting against LNA.
Since the beginning of first flights from Turkey toward Tripoli and the presence of Syrian mercenaries on the battlefields, they have been suffering heavy strikes, as many of them were killed and others fled the clashes’ zones, while Turkey stopped paying their wages.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), citing a Syrian fighter currently in Libya, the Turkish regime stopped paying the wages of the Syrian mercenaries. The fighter expressed his remorse for his participation in the war in Libya, and asked everyone who wants to go to Libya not to do so because the Turks are no longer paying their mercenaries’ monthly salaries.
The US-based National Interest magazine said that Turkey could be facing massive economic difficulties in light of the Coronavirus pandemic, indicating that the country’s weak economy in previous years will have a significant impact amid the current situation, as Turkey’s financial options to limit the impact of the crisis are very few, adding that this may be one of tye reasons for not paying the wages of their mercenaries.
Worse yet, the American journalist Lindsey Snell, who specializes in Middle East affairs, said that there is an outbreak of Coronavirus among the Syrian mercenaries in Libya, where two of them tested positive and transferred to Mitiga Airport in Tripoli, in addition to testing 17 of the mercenaries in Ain Zara in southern Tripoli.
The American journalist added that the 17 Syrian mercenaries in Ain Zara tested positive for Coronavirus and they were taken to a house as an isolation measure.
The new revelations are very concerning, especially that many fighters of the Government of National Accord (GNA) are fighting alongside Syrian mercenaries, knowing that fears prevail over GNA forces’ exposure to the virus.
