Khalifa Haftar, the leader of the armed forces in the east of the country in Libya [Khalifa Haftar forces press office/Anadolu Agency]
Khalifa Haftar, the leader of the armed forces in the east of the country in Libya [Khalifa Haftar forces press office/Anadolu Agency]
Leaked reports and documents regarding Russia resorting to a new strategy in the Mediterranean to send weapons and military equipment to the commander of the General Command in eastern Libya, retired Major General Khalifa Haftar, has raised questions about the repercussions of the move and whether Haftar will be held accountable internationally.
An investigative report has revealed leaked documents indicating that Russia is using a new strategy to evade international sanctions against it in the Mediterranean by using the so-called Russian “ghost fleet” to send military equipment to Haftar. The Cameroonian-flagged cargo ship Barbaros crossed the Turkish Bosphorus Strait on its way to the port of Tobruk in eastern Libya.
Meanwhile, leaked documents from the European Union Naval Force Mediterranean Operation Irini revealed Moscow’s use of a “ghost fleet”—hundreds of old merchant ships with unclear ownership—to evade detection while shipping equipment and firearms to eastern Libya.
The documents revealed that Interpol prepared a report on the Barbaros, revealing that it had tampered with its Automatic Identification System (AIS), the device that transmits information about a ship’s location, in an attempt to conceal its location. The report also revealed that the ship had changed its name three times and re-registered under another country’s flag at least ten times since 2013.
READ:Libya now finds itself in the crosshairs of the superpowers
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