Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said Ankara has started moving military units to Libya to support the internationally-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, one of the two rival administrations in the North African country.
Turkey's parliament approved the deployment of troops in Libya after it received a request for military support from the GNA, headed by Fayez al-Sarraj.
Erdogan said: "There will be an operation centre [in Libya], there will be a Turkish lieutenant general leading and they will be managing the situation over there.
Turkish soldiers are gradually moving there right now," Erdogan told private broadcaster CNN Turk during an interview. He said Turkey would not be deploying its own combat forces. "Right now, we will have different units serving as a combatant force," he said, without giving details on who and how many the fighters would be, as well as where they would come from.
The president said Turkey's objective was "not to fight", but "to support the legitimate government and avoid a humanitarian tragedy".
He said: "Our soldiers' duty there is coordination. They will develop the operation centre there. Our soldiers are gradually going right now."
General Haftar called on Libyans to take up arms in response to Turkey's expected military move.
"We accept the challenge and declare jihad and a call to arms," he said in a televised address on Friday.
He urged "all Libyans" to bear arms, "men and women, soldiers and civilians, to defend our land and our honour".
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Turkish Soldiers Gradually Being Deployed To Libya Says Erdogan
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