Mercenary armies are running amok around the world Candace Rondeaux ,
A recent report by UN investigators detailed a bungled plot to prop up Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar with mercenaries, allegedly including a special hit squad.
Not all the details of that 2019 plot are clear, but it underscores the increasing use and ongoing opacity of operations by private military contractors around the world.
It may take years to unravel the tangled web surrounding Project Opus, the bungled 2019 mercenary operation to prop up Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar, which allegedly included efforts to deploy a special hit squad to Libya.
The recently leaked UN report makes only glancing mention of Prince s alleged ties to the operation, but it marks the second time since the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings that Prince s company, Hong Kong-based Frontier Services Group, or FSG, has been linked to allegations of trying to sell military services in Libya.
Erik Prince and the Failed Plot to Arm a CIA Asset-Turned-Warlord in Libya
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February 26 2021, 10:00 a.m.
In 2019, Erik Prince, the founder of the notorious mercenary firm Blackwater and a prominent Donald Trump supporter, aided a plot to move U.S.-made attack helicopters, weapons, and other military equipment from Jordan to a renegade commander fighting for control of war-torn Libya. A team of mercenaries planned to use the aircraft to help the commander, Khalifa Hifter, a U.S. citizen and former CIA asset, defeat Libya’s U.N.-recognized and U.S.-backed government. While the U.N. has alleged that Prince helped facilitate the mercenary effort, sources with knowledge of the chain of events, as well as documents obtained by The Intercept, reveal new details about the scheme as well as Prince’s yearslong campaign to support Hifter in his bid to take power in Libya.
Blueprint for a raid: Documents shed light on plan to buy U.S. helicopter gunships for assault on Tripoli Joby Warrick © Mahmud Turkia/AFP/Getty Images A missile truck is abandoned in a camp that was used by forces loyal to Libyan rebel leader Khalifa Hifter in Gharyan, Libya, in June 2019, just days after his forces were driven from the city by government troops. The commandos for hire who landed in Benghazi in June 2019 had arranged, at great expense, to procure every weapon and tool needed for an assault on Libya’s government. They obtained drones, inflatable speed boats, night-vision goggles, a mobile command center and even gear for jamming enemy communications.
By JOBY WARRICK | The Washington Post | Published: February 20, 2021 The commandos for hire who landed in Benghazi in June 2019 had arranged, at great expense, to procure every weapon and tool needed for an assault on Libya s government. They obtained drones, inflatable speedboats, night-vision goggles, a mobile command center and even gear for jamming enemy communications. And there were the helicopter gunships: three AH-1F Cobras, configured with mounts for machine guns and rocket launchers. The U.S.-made aircraft had been given to Jordan years earlier, and leaders of the operation traveled to Amman believing they had a deal to acquire them. In a status report to comrades, a commando team member described the helicopters as packed up and waiting to be loaded onto transport planes bound for Libya.
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