https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/w...rces-j5bqcmjlz
Elite Russian mercenaries Wagner Group run out of Tripoli by Turkish forces
Russia’s elite mercenary corps, the Wagner Group, has been forced into a humiliating retreat in a victory for Turkey’s rival military adventure in Libya.
Hundreds of men were filmed driving south from the capital, Tripoli, towards the town of Bani Walid, after their local allies announced a pullback from a number of front lines. They were then said to have flown on to a rear base, taking with them artillery and other heavy weapons.
The group, run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close associate of President Putin, played a key role in the Syrian civil war before being sent to support the rebel Libyan National Army (LNA) of Khalifa Haftar, a Russian-backed former-army officer from the regime of Colonel Gaddafi. In December Turkey came to the aid of the UN-recognised government with military drones and mercenaries of its own — Syrian rebel veterans of that country’s own civil war.
After giving up some of their last strongholds in the south of Tripoli over the weekend, Wagner Group troops were filmed retreating through the desert. It is unclear what further part they will play in the fighting. A UN report last week revealed that the LNA had been trying to recruit a second mercenary force, run by a South African businessman, although that also withdrew from Tripoli after a row with Marshal Haftar......
The arrival of the Wagner force helped the LNA assault on Tripoli in April last year, which for a moment looked as if it might succeed. However, a new and relatively static front opened up in the southern suburbs until the Turkish intervention in late December.
Pro-GNA media claimed that 1,500 Wagner troops had fled to Bani Walid, taking artillery and other heavy weapons with them. The GNA army spokesman, Mohammed Gununu, said they had withdrawn from three military camps in southern Tripoli and the suburb of Salaheddin.
The GNA is said to be preparing an offensive against Tarhouna, the last LNA stronghold in western Libya after the al-Watiya military base to the west of Tripoli fell
last week. During fighting there, at least seven Russian Pantsir anti-aircraft batteries were destroyed by Turkish drones, an embarrassment to Moscow, which has sold the system to countries around the world.