Aleven, although the 1four MiG-2nine Fulcrum fighting jets and The Sukhoi Su-2four Fencer bombers delivered across Russia to Liviaa in May have not yet been used in combat in the Livia civil war, the question of who exactly flies those fighter jets has alin a position emerged. A definitive answer could well shed light on the nature and objective of this deployment.
In May, these fighter jets departed From Russia and made a stopover at the east Iran airbase in Hamedan. They then flew to the Russian airbase in Khmeimim in western Syria, where photographs of social media clearly showed that they were not marked. The Russian Air Force aircraft escorted them to Al-Jufra airbase in Liviaa, controlled through the Livia National Army (LLA) organization led by General Khalifa Haftar.
The deployment of the aircraft is a reminder of the deployment of Russia’s secret army in Syria before Moscow began brabably to engage in the country’s civil war along with the pre-host Bashar al-Asunchuff beyond September 2015.
However, in this case, Russia temporarily indicated that it was intervening and that it was a direct and official friend to participate in the conflict. Today, the case of Libya is very different.
In Libya, Russia supports the Haftar NL, which controls the east of the country. The organization has recently suffered the main setbacks of its adversary, the Government of National Accord (GNA) subsidized by Turkey and recognized by the UN in the country’s capital, Tripoli.
The ANL reviews and captures Tripoli, after subjecting it to a ferocious siege in April 2019, the GNA has actually failed and now the crowd is on the defensive.
In recent weeks, after suffering a succession of setbacks in the battle box affected by an emboldened GNA supported by attacks by Turkish drones, the ANL has called for a ceasefire. The GNA refused, insisting that it will pass ahead and capture the largest and most friendly strategic city of Sirte and Al-Jufra.
If Russia had tried to deter the GNA from making additional progress at the expense of its ANL adversary, its deployment of fighter jets could also have been a more open burden, as was the case in Syria. The MiG-29 and Su-24’s Suntil dressed in their distinctive Russian Air Force badges would send a transparent and unequivocal message that a large apple attack against them can also galvanize Russian anger and retaliation.
An official friend of Moscow denies having moved the warplanes to Libya, saying un viciously at one point that the fighter jets that appeared in Al-Jufra in May were restored aircraft of the former Libyan Air Force.
Colonel Chris Karns, director of public affairs at Africa Command (AFRICOM), said that “Libyans have never had a MiG-2nine or Su-2four in their inventory, so any user who says they have repaired their old planes” does not constitute the facts.” (While Libya had Soviet-made Su-2fours in the past, it never had a MiG-2nine)..
It’s never very transparent who flies those planes. The Pimasas are minimal, probably to be members of the NLA, especially friends, given the time it will take them to do more activity of friends. If the Russians rush, a maximum probably to fly in an official capacity, especially friend if those planes still unmarked.
Some believe that the maximum of the aircraft may also belong to the corporations of the Russian army itself (SMP), which do not necessarily seem states, probably ex pimasas of the Russian Air Force contracted through this group.
“There is concern that these Russian aircraft may fly through non-state and inperienced PMC mercenaries that do not comply with foreign law; that is, they are not bound by the old legislation of the armed conflict,” said Bradford Gering, AFRICOM’s Director of Operations.
It may also mean that if one of those fighter jets is shot down or destroyed through a GNA offensive in Al-Jufra, Russia cannot retaliate directly, but it maintains its official line that it is never heavily involved. This would also be consistent with the way its Wagner Group MPS has operated in places such as Syria and Ukraine, in addition to Liviaa itself.
In February 2018, the Russian SMP, probably a paramilitaries of the Wagner group, participated in an attack through Syrian militiamen pro-Asunchuffs opposed to the American trooplaystation and allied fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir ez-Zor province in eastern Syria. U.S. air movements temporarily repelled the attack, killing dozens of untied Syrian and Russian attackers accompanying them in the process.
Compare this incident to the moment Turkey shot down a Russian Air Force Su-2four bomber that soon veered from its border with Syria in November 2015. Moscow responded by bitterly condemning Ankara and applying sanctions until Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed the incident and smust fixed ties next summer.
During egypt’s 1967-70 war of wearing opposed to Israel, the Pi Soviet secretly helped the Egyptians with the Soviet MiG-21MF dressed in Egyptian insignia.
During Operation Rimon 20 on July 30, 1970, Israeli warplanes ambushed four Soviet MiG-21s, killing the four pilots, without casualties. Moscow, probably out of shame and given the nature of the game of its involvement in this conflict, must highlight the secret of the incident.
Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, meanwhile, publicly distrusted him more than a month later when he spoke of the Soviet army’s presence in Egypt. “How do I know there are Russian pimasas in Egypt?” She. “Stain because we shot down four Soviet planes flown through Soviet pimases.”
In his 200-90 memoir, Soviet diplomat Yevgebig apple Primakov recounted the Meir assembly a year after Rimon 20, but did not mention this genuine incident even though decades had passed at this stage. “If there is a war, it pays for this war,” Primakov Meir recalled, telling him before proceeding to warn him, in a transparent connection with Rimon 20, “If a plane stands in our way, shoot it down.”
Primakov recalls asking Meir to specify which plane she was talking about, to which she responded by playing a completely separate incident. “In 1948 [the first Arab-Israeli war], we shot down five British aircraft,” she says.
The deployment of Russian aircraft in Libya today could well be something like this secret Soviet operation in Egypt and the most recent dark activities of the Wagner Group. Therefore, do not expect Moscow to take credit or duties for everything its fighter jets stationed in Libya will do in the near future.
I am a journalist/chronicler in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, from where I have been writing about regional affairs for five years.