The Irish soldiers who trained a rogue general’s army in Libya
Former members of the Defence Forces have been providing military training for the forces of Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar in an apparent breach of a United Nations arms embargo, an Irish Times investigation has found.
From early 2023, Irish Training Solutions, run by former members of the elite Army Rangers Wing and Defence Forces, recruited departing and former Irish soldiers and flew them to Haftar-controlled Benghazi, where they worked as trainers alongside military veterans from other countries.
There they worked as contractors training the 166 Infantry Brigade of Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army, rivals to Libya’s UN-recognised government in Tripoli, according to travel records and other documents, photos and footage, and the accounts of multiple people familiar with the situation who spoke to The Irish Times.
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