Russian presence in Libya more dangerous than ISIS says
US Africa Command
by Abraham Mahshie
April 29, 2020 12:01 AM
"Gen. Khalifa Haftar, the rebel leader who controls Libya’s oil-rich east, recently declared he has a popular mandate to rule all of the North African nation, a move that may give Russia the upper hand if he can succeed in taking Tripoli amid nearly a decade's worth of sectarian strife.
In the disarray since dictator Muammar Qaddafi was killed in 2011, a civil war has raged across Libya, and ISIS remnants have secured a tenuous footing in the south. But more troubling, say U.S. Africa Command officials, is that Russia has inserted a paramilitary group to support Haftar and position itself on the southern flank of NATO.
“They're acting out on U.S. strategic interests in North Africa, but at the same time doing it at a low cost, and if they mess up, then the Kremlin has plausible deniability,” an AFRICOM defense official told the Washington Examiner on Monday."
moar:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/russian-presence-in-libya-more-dangerous-than-isis-says-us-africa-command