Trump ally ‘sent UK mercenaries into Libya’
Head of controversial US private security firm violated arms embargo, leaked UN report alleges
AN ALLY of Donald Trump violated an arms embargo on Libya by sending British and other foreign mercenaries into the country’s civil war, UN investigations found in a report seen by US media outlets. Erik Prince, head of the controversial Blackwater private security firm, provided foreign mercenaries and weapons to strongman Khalifa Haftar to support his bid to overthrow the UNbacked Libyan government in 2019, the report findings allege.
The confidential report is the result of an 18-month investigation and was delivered to the UN Security Council on Thursday and later leaked to The New York Times and The Washington Post.
According to investigators, Mr Prince, the brother of Mr Trump’s former education secretary, pitched the $80 million (£57 million) mercenary operation to General Khalifa Haftar shortly after his assault on Tripoli, which began in April 2019 and precipitated the country’s civil war.
Libya has been engulfed by violence since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi’s dictatorship in 2011 and has in recent years been split between a Government of National Accord in Tripoli, and an eastern-based administration, backed by Gen Haftar.
The brazen mission allegedly proposed by Mr Prince included plans to form a hit squad to track and kill Libyan commanders opposed to Gen Haftar – including some who were also European Union citizens, The New York Times reported.
Four days after Mr Prince’s reported meeting with Gen Haftar, the Trump administration publicly endorsed the militia leader, reversing US policy on Libya and backing the attack on Tripoli.
It is not the first time Mr Prince, a former US Navy Seal and the brother of Betsy DeVos, Mr Trump’s education secretary, has faced allegations over the use of privatised military forces. He drew infamy as the head of Blackwater, whose contractors were accused of killing 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007. Four contractors convicted in the incident were pardoned by Mr Trump a month before he left office.
The leaked report has raised questions over whether Mr Prince, a major donor and ally of the former Republican president, could have used his ties with the Trump administration to pull off the Libya operation.
It alleges an associate of Mr Prince, who is accused of acting as an intermediary in the operation, attempted to buy US-made Cobra helicopters from the Jordanian military and assured officials in the country he had received clearances “at the highest level” for the purchase and transfer of the aircraft.
The transfer of American military aircraft and heavy weapons to Libya is banned under UN arms embargoes and US law. The accusations in the UN report expose Mr Prince to possible UN sanctions, including a travel ban, if found guilty, The New York Times said.
A spokesman for Mr Prince told The Sunday Telegraph: “Erik Prince had absolutely nothing to do with any operation in Libya in 2019, or at any other time.”