User Controls
Irish Company training Libyan militia
-
2024-04-03 at 5:51 PM UTC
Former members of the Irish Defence Forces have reportedly been providing military training to a ‘warlord’ in Libya.
https://www.newstalk.com/news/irish-soldiers-accused-of-training-warlord-in-libya-against-un-law-1712115
Khalifa Haftar is a challenger to the country’s official Government based in Tripoli that is recognised by the United Nations.
He leads the Libyan National Army and controls much of Libya’s east where he is supported by Wagner mercenaries from Russia, Egypt and the UAE.
On The Pat Kenny Show today, The Irish Times journalist Naomi O’Leary said an Offaly-based company called Irish Training Solutions have been providing military training to Mr Haftar’s forces on the ground in Libya for over a year.
UN embargo
Ms O’Leary said the company has been recruiting outgoing defence forces members in Ireland for the training, which is in breach of a UN arms embargo in place for Libya.
“In 2011, the UN Security Council agreed to an embargo on Libya, a total ban on furnishing weapons as well as any military training to forces in Libya,” she said.
“They did that to try and stop the country being torn apart by rival factions after the fall of Gaddafi.
“That’s the issue; training is banned by this UN arms embargo, military training, and it’s also banned by EU sanctions too.”
Ms O’Leary said Irish personnel are essentially training part of Haftar’s army “to become a special operations force”.
“People familiar with the training say they are training soldiers in sniping skills, machine gun support, armed entry of buildings and things like that,” she said.
“They were hired on nine-month contracts, according to contracts I’ve seen, and the rate of pay was €300 a day.
“They were flown out, according to travel records, via Turkey and Spain out into Benghazi which is Haftar-controlled territory.
She said The Irish Times investigation found that former members of the elite Army Ranger Wing were hires as well as “as one member who flew out and became a trainer that had not yet been discharged from the Defence Forces at the time”.
Reaction in Ireland
Ms O’Leary said this hasn’t gone down well in Ireland.
“It was discovered by the Defence Forces and created uproar internally, prompting a Garda investigation and other things,” she said.
“It’s quite serious for the Defence Forces for there to be personnel over in Libya especially when they are wearing badges, for example, photos show Irish tri-colour patches on their uniform along with the Irish Training Solutions logo.”
Based 🍀 -
2024-04-03 at 5:54 PM UTCI wonder do they pay tax on that day rate.
If they don't it's near €100k a year. -
2024-04-03 at 5:59 PM UTCThis is nothing new. The Irish have been training Libyans since khadaffy was in power. They traded arms for the training.
-
2024-04-03 at 6:11 PM UTCinstead of standing armies I think it would be cooler if we had a complete global decentralization of military force where the largest armies are only at the battalion level. I think the market is shifting this direction anyways, the only thing preventing such a reality is the artificial propping up of glut conscription national armies that don't really do anything.
Look at the biggest armies on earth the US military, Chinese PLA, North Korea, Russia, Brazil. Most of them don't do shit and just sit around waiting for something to happen except maybe Russia and they are just treated as meat shields for the meat wave attacks. OH THEY CAN BLOW UP YOUR COUNTRY WITH A NUKE WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW I GRADUATED 300+LBS IN THE GRAVY SEALS MEAL TEAM SIX AND I CAN ET 4 QUARTER POUNDERS WITH MY BEAR HANDS!
If any battalion sized force had a nuke they could do the same. Modern militaries lose to fucking ooga booga gorilla terrorists and IED's so it's clearly a gigantic waste of everyones time/money
