Germany may dispatch troops near Libya, report says
Germany plans to dispatch a military contingent to a location near Libya with the alleged mission of training the African country's army, a report says.
Germany’s Der Spiegel daily reported on Saturday that Berlin mulls sending more than 100 troops for the purported training mission.
“According to internal (government) plans German soldiers could, along with Italian colleagues, within months begin training the Libyan armed forces,” the news magazine said, adding, “This would involve 150-200 Bundeswehr (German armed forces) troops.”
Officials in Germany’s Defense Ministry have yet to comment on the issue, although the report comes one day after the European Union, the body in which Germany has effectively the final say on security and defense cases, urged rival administrations in Libya to back a unity government, as demanded by the United Nations.
Libya has been in chaos four years after dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled and later killed in October 2011. The internationally recognized government, based in Tobruk, eastern Libya, has been vying to recapture the capital, Tripoli, from the militants of the Libya Dawn movement. Takfiri groups, including Daesh terrorists, are also operating in Libya. There are fears of a spillover of violence into Europe.
Der Spiegel said the training mission would be based in Tunisia due to the security situation in Libya. A similar mission has already been carried out by Germany in Iraq, where the German soldiers have been training Kurdish Peshmerga forces north of the country.
The potential deployment comes amid an increasing presence of Germany on battlegrounds in Iraq and Syria, where the administration of Chancellor Angela Merkel is contributing more and more forces and weaponry to the so-called international coalition purportedly targeting Daesh positions.
On January 6, Berlin decided to deploy an additional 550 troops to missions against militants in Mali and Iraq.
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