Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar to General Khalifa Haftar that any attack against Turkish troops in the African country would lead to a military response  

Turkey warns that it will respond to any attack on its troops in Libya  

photo_camera PHOTO/PRESIDENCIAL PRESS SERVICE via AP - The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the centre, accompanied by the Minister of Defence of Turkey, Hulusi Akar, second from the left, and the Chief of General Staff of Turkey, Yasar Guler, second from the right

Turkey's Defence Minister Hulusi Akar has warned General Khalifa Haftar, head of the rebel side in the civil war in Libya, that any attack against the Turkish troops in the African country would lead to a military response, the Turkish Ministry of Defence reports on Sunday.  

"This war criminal and murderer Haftar and those who support him must know that if any attack is carried out against the Turkish forces we consider Haftar's forces as a legitimate target anywhere. They will have nowhere to run," warned Akar during a visit to Libya that started yesterday.  

He described Haftar, who is supported by Russia, Saudi Arabia, Emirates and Egypt, as "a coup, a pawn of foreign forces and a toy of others" and said that "not everybody who buys a uniform can be a marshal", referring to Haftar's military rank.  

Akar made these statements, which were published today on the website of his ministry, when he had dinner on Saturday night with the Turkish military contingent that Ankara sent to Tripoli last January to support the government of the Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al Serraj, which was besieged by Haftar's forces.  

The Turkish intervention changed the balance of forces and enabled Al-Sarraj, whose government is recognised by the United Nations and the European Union, to regain ground, before a ceasefire was proclaimed with peace negotiations last November.  

JALIFA HAFTAR

Yesterday Akar met the Libyan interior minister, Fathi Bashaga, a politician who has caused tension with Al-Sarraj this autumn and is considered a possible candidate to replace the current leader.  

The Turkish minister also criticised the European Union's Irini mission, which aims to monitor compliance with the arms embargo against Libya, lamenting that "it has been started without any coordination with the legitimate Libyan government, without cooperation and without a clear decision by the United Nations".  

Irini is thus "a partial, unfair and dubious operation" which "cannot be accepted", said Mr Akar, whose government has previously criticised the fact that the European mission only controls the sea routes through which material arrives in Tripoli, but not the air routes used by the Arab states to send weapons to Haftar. 

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