U.S. accuses Russia of sending warplanes

CAIRO >> The U.S. military accused Russia of covertly deploying at least 14 fighter jets to Libya last week in support of Russian mercenaries fighting alongside a beleaguered commander in his campaign to oust the government from Tripoli, the capital.

The deployment of the fighter jets appeared to confirm the Kremlin’s deepening role in the sprawling proxy war, where its Libyan ally, commander Khalifa Hifter, suffered a series of major losses last week that dealt a heavy blow to his campaign.

The warplanes were repainted at a base in Syria, en route to Libya, to camouflage their Russian origin, the U.S. Africa Command said in a statement accompanied by 15 photos, including satellite images, that showed the planes in the air and at an air base in Libya.

“For too long, Russia has denied the full extent of its involvement in the ongoing Libyan conflict,” said Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of AFRICOM. “Well, there is no denying it now.”

The unusually blunt and public criticism by a senior U.S. commander underscored the Pentagon’s broader concern about Moscow’s growing influence in Libya.

Until now, Russia has flexed its muscles in Libya through the Wagner Group, a Kremlin-backed private military company whose mercenaries provided a major boost to Hifter’s assault on Tripoli last fall at a moment when his own forces were faltering.

But last week, Turkey, which intervened in January to support the United Nations-backed government in Tripoli, rolled back Hifter’s advance with a succession of victories. Turkish drones pummeled Hifter’s supply lines and allowed government fighters to capture a strategic air base west of Tripoli.