By Alexander Dziadosz, Aaron McNicholas and Vinaya K CAIRO, April 2 (Reuters) - Eastern Libya's military leader, Khalifa Haftar, has acquired what appear to be Chinese and Turkish combat drones,
Libya’s Haftar Acquires Combat Drones Amid UN Arms Embargo, Impact on Finance
Haftar’s Drone Acquisition and Its Financial and Political Implications
By Alexander Dziadosz, Aaron McNicholas and Vinaya K
Background: Drones in the Libyan Conflict
CAIRO, April 2 (Reuters) - Eastern Libya's military leader, Khalifa Haftar, has acquired what appear to be Chinese and Turkish combat drones, Reuters reporting has found, despite a long-standing U.N. embargo on supplying weapons to the divided North African country.
Commercial satellite images show at least three drones at Al Khadim airbase, located in the desert about 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of the city of Benghazi, between late April and December. Their arrival has not previously been reported.
What appeared to be ground control equipment for the aircraft was still visible this year, according to three weapons experts who reviewed the images.
Role of UAVs in the Civil War
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) played a significant role during a 2014-2020 civil war in Libya, when Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) tried to overthrow the U.N.-recognised government in Tripoli on the grounds it was harbouring armed gangs and "terrorists", which it denied. Countries including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Russia provided key backing to Haftar, according to U.N. investigators, while Turkey supported the Tripoli-based administration. China avoided taking sides.
Libya's warring factions agreed a ceasefire in 2020, but the country remains divided between Haftar's administration in the east and the Tripoli-based government led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah in the west.
Symbolic and Strategic Importance
The arrival of new combat drones at Al Khadim "would be a huge symbolic win" for Haftar, reinforcing his hold over the east and much of the south, including major oilfields, and strengthening his hand in negotiations to form a unified Libyan government, said Anas El Gomati, head of the Sadeq Institute, a Libyan think tank.
Gomati said the weapons could also be used to defend supply lines to the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group in neighbouring Sudan. Haftar has denied supporting the RSF.
Haftar's LNA is not known to have the technical expertise to pilot these kinds of drones, Gomati told Reuters.
"The question remains: who's operating them?"
Details on the Drones and International Response
Types of Drones Acquired
The experts who reviewed the satellite images said one was most likely a Chinese-made Feilong-1 (FL-1), an advanced surveillance and attack drone. The others appear to be less powerful, Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones, all three agreed, though they could not rule out other models.
Unanswered Questions and Embargo Enforcement
Reuters could not determine who supplied the drones or when. The LNA, the governments of China and Turkey, and the drones' manufacturers, Xi'an-based defence company Zhongtian Feilong and Istanbul-based Baykar, did not respond to detailed questions for this article. The Tripoli-based government also did not comment.
The news agency could not establish whether China, Turkey or any other U.N. member states applied for exemptions to the embargo to send drones to eastern Libya. The Security Council committee that handles these requests did not answer questions about the drones.
The U.N. department of peace-building affairs referred Reuters to a Security Council resolution last year expressing "grave concern" over continued violations of the embargo, which requires approval from the United Nations for weapons transfers to Libya.
Libya's Rival Authorities in Race to Rearm
History and Impact of the Arms Embargo
LIBYA'S RIVAL AUTHORITIES IN RACE TO REARM
The embargo has been in place since 2011, when a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi. But high-tech weaponry flowed into the country during the war that followed, according to a U.N. panel of experts monitoring the embargo, turning Libya into Africa's first major theatre for drone combat.
Current Arms Build-up
Tensions have now cooled, but there is evidence both sides are attempting to bolster their air power, according to five Libya analysts, the weapons experts and the U.N. investigators.
In December, the LNA reached a deal to purchase $4 billion-worth of military equipment from Pakistan, including JF-17 fighter jets developed with China, Reuters reported.
Pakistani officials told the news agency at the time that the deal did not break the embargo. U.N. sanctions officials and Pakistan's foreign and defence ministries did not answer questions about these assertions.
Impact on LNA Capabilities
The acquisition of Chinese and Turkish drones would mark a significant boost in the LNA's capabilities after the 2020 departure of a fleet of Chinese-made Wing Loong II drones based at Al Khadim, documented by the U.N. panel.
The UAE, which saw Haftar as a bulwark against Islamist groups, helped the LNA build up air power, including supplying and "most probably" operating the Wing Loongs, the panel said in a 2017 annual report.
Abu Dhabi has repeatedly denied providing military support to the LNA. The UAE foreign ministry did not respond to questions about the new drones.
Turkey’s Role and Shifting Alliances
Turkey supplied the U.N.-recognised government with TB2 drones and air defence systems that helped turn back Haftar's assault on Tripoli in 2020, producing a stalemate that has mostly endured since.
The balance of air power tipped further in Tripoli's favour in October 2022, when the government there signed an agreement with Turkey to procure more advanced Bayraktar Akinci drones, which can carry nearly three times the payload and reach higher altitudes than the Wing Loong II.
However, relations between Turkey and Haftar have improved recently, as Ankara has sought to safeguard economic and energy interests in Libya and ratification by the eastern-based parliament of a controversial deal on maritime boundaries struck with western authorities in 2019.
Ibrahim Kalin, head of Turkey's National Intelligence Organisation, met with Haftar and his son, Saddam, in Benghazi in August to discuss ways to "enhance cooperation" on intelligence and security matters, the LNA said in a statement at the time.
Saddam, who is the LNA's deputy commander, visited Anka
