Al-Khadim base near Benghazi in eastern Libya

Nadeen Ebrahim, Tim Lister – CNN Dec 31, 2024

In the weeks since Bashar al-Assad was ousted as Syrian leader, Russia has launched multiple flights to an airbase in the Libyan desert.

Moscow’s goal appears to be to find an alternative stopover for its growing military involvement in Africa – and a way to retain its military presence in the Mediterranean. For nearly a decade, the Hmeimim air base and Tartus naval facility on the Syrian coast have served both purposes.

Now the conflict-riven North African nation of Libya is central to Russian efforts to project power into the Mediterranean.

Flight-tracking data analyzed by CNN show more than one flight a day since mid-December – by Moscow’s giant Antonov AN-124 transport planes, as well as Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft – from Hmeimim to al-Khadim, a base near Benghazi in eastern Libya.

Earlier this month, US and Western officials told CNN that Russia had begun withdrawing a large amount of military equipment and troops from Syria.

The equipment transferred may have included advanced Russian air defense systems. CNN saw imagery of these systems waiting to be flown out of Syria shortly before the Russian flights started.

Jalel Harchaoui, an associate fellow at the London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank, told CNN there has been an “undeniable spike in Russian aircraft landing in Libya from Syria, Russia and Belarus” in recent weeks.

Hmeimim has been the hub from which Russian mercenary operations in Africa – at first in the Central African Republic and later in Sudan, Libya, Mali and Burkina Faso – were sustained.

By strengthening its presence in Libya, Moscow may retain enough capability to pursue its broader ambitions further south in Africa, absorbing the new costs inevitably associated with Assad’s downfall, Harchaoui said.

Geolocated video shows at least one of the planes that recently arrived at al-Khadim flew on to Bamako in Mali, where Russia has recently supplanted long-term French influence

“Russian flights to Bamako via Libya demonstrate that Russia has already turned to Libya as an alternative to its Syrian bases,” analysts at the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats project said in a briefing note.

The flights are not consistent with the previous pattern of Russian Africa Corps rotations to Bamako, it added. Russia’s Africa Corps, under the aegis of its defense ministry, is the successor to the Wagner mercenary group in Africa.

The Russians have had a foothold at al-Khadim for several years, while supplying mercenary fighters and weapons to support Gen. Khalifa Haftar, the self-declared ruler of much of eastern Libya. The investigative outfit All Eyes on Wagner reported earlier this year that a secure compound had been built near the base for Russian personnel transiting to other parts of Africa.

A deputy Russian defense minister, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, has made several visits to Libya to consolidate links with Haftar in the past two years.

That relationship may be set to deepen if the Russian navy is eyeing a port under Haftar’s control as an alternative to its facility at Tartus in Syria.

NATO concerns

The prospect is not going down well in NATO capitals. Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto told Italian daily La Repubblica that, “Russian ships and submarines in the Mediterranean are always a concern, and even more so if instead of being 1,000 kilometers away they are two steps from us.”

Continues …

Putin Eyes New Mediterranean Power Base? Satellite Images Show Spike in Russian Aircraft Activity

Times of India – Jan 1, 2025

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