US says Libyan armed forces training to go ahead

By Leonard Powell

The Pentagon have reaffirmed the US decision to provide basic combat training to the Libyan armed forces despite the recent bloodshed in Tripoli when protesters were fired on, according to yesterday’s edition of Defense News, the most influential US military publication.

“The training requested by Libya’s Prime Minister would be carried out by AFRICOM at a base in Bulgaria”, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren told reporters on Monday.

“We’re in discussions with the Libyans on the exact number, but we’re prepared to provide training for 5,000 to 8,000 personnel,” Warren said adding:“ This hasn’t been finalised yet, but that’s the plan we’re working towards.”

The duration and cost of the training remained unclear as well as whether the Pentagon would provide weapons or equipment to Libyan forces.

Under current US law, the Libyans military personnel cannot be trained in the US nor can the US military train them in Libya. The training has to take place in a third country.

In mid-September, the Bulgarian government announced it had approved an American request to train up to 8,000 Libyan soldiers at two bases in the country.

There are also plans to train a separate counter-terrorism unit, Adm. William McRaven, commander of SOCOM (US Special Operations Command) said on Saturday.

McRaven is known for overseeing the 2011 raid that killed Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Training government forces in a country plagued by volatile divisions and militias with shifting loyalties would carry some dangers, McRaven acknowledged.

“There is probably some risk that some of the people we will be training with do not have the most clean record,” McRaven said at a Saturday event held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

“At the end of the day, it is the best solution we can find to train them to deal with their own problems,” the admiral concluded.

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