Flight-tracking services appear to confirm allegations from a Syrian focused war-monitoring group that Turkey recently shipped large quantities of weapons to Libya in possible breach of arms embargoes. Over the past year, Turkey has reinforced the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord with militia forces recruited in Syria, sent military trainers and shipped large quantities of hardware to prop up the administration. The United Nations has called on all sides in the conflict to expel foreign militias and comply with embargoes to cease resupplying the country’s many militias. According to the UK based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a non-partisan tracking group, Ankara appears to be continuing regular shipments despite a ceasefire being called for by the GNA and its rival House of Representatives in the east. Both sides have been sitting for reunification talks aimed at ending the division and halting the fighting. Last month, Operation Irena, the UN mission to enforce an arms embargo on the conflict-riven nation, authorised the German navy to search the Turkish cargo ship <em>Rosaline A</em>. Turkey managed to stop German commandos from boarding the ship, claiming that it was simply an aid shipment. However, ships appear to be just one of the ways Turkey may be sending additional arms. Flight tracking service Flight24 shows that Turkish military airlifts are ongoing to the Tripoli government, overflying and avoiding naval Operation Irena. On December 4, an Airbus A400M Atlas – a large cargo plane capable of carrying 116 fully equipped soldiers, landed at Tripoli airport. While it’s not possible to confirm whether the aircraft was carrying men or equipment, open-source satellite imagery analysis account Observer IL has suggested that Turkey may have used the A400 to fly “MRAPs,” or Mine Resistant Armoured Personnel carriers, to GNA forces. Internationally supported peace talks, held remotely, are ongoing and there are now plans to hold national elections, which could herald a lasting political settlement. But the recent evidence of Turkish arms transfers to the GNA will raise fears that rival groups are preparing for the possibility that talks will fail. On Monday, there were reports that GNA forces were manoeuvring near the city of Sirte, located on the war's now frozen front line. According to the Libyan National Army's west Sirte liberation operations room, local forces were on maximum alert and all leave had been cancelled, in anticipation of renewed hostilities.
