The paper said Moscow has deployed missiles, warplanes and armed drones as well as a growing number of private mercenaries as it plunges deeper into a conflict in a strategic hot spot rich with oil.
The New York Times quoted medics in Libya as saying that they were seeing casualties arriving with “narrow holes in a head or a torso left by bullets that kill instantly and never exit the body.”
According to Libyan fighters, it is the work of Russian mercenaries, including skilled snipers, The New York Times reported.
“The lack of an exit wound is a signature of the ammunition used by the same Russian mercenaries elsewhere,” the paper said in an article entitled “Russian Snipers, Missiles and Warplanes Try to Tilt Libyan War.”
The article, penned by David D. Kirkpatrick and posted on the paper's website, asserts that after four years of behind-the-scenes financial and tactical support for a would-be Libyan strongman, Russia is now pushing more directly to shape the outcome of Libya’s civil war.
“It has introduced advanced Sukhoi jets, coordinated missile strikes, and precision-guided artillery, as well as the snipers — the same playbook that made Moscow a kingmaker in the Syrian civil war,” Kirkpatrick, an international correspondent for the NYT, said in his article.
He added that the new intervention of private Russian mercenaries, who he said are closely tied to the Kremlin, is just one of the parallels with the Syrian civil war.
The Russian snipers are part of what is known as the Wagner Group, a Kremlin-linked private company that also led Russia’s intervention in Syria, The New York Times reported, citing “three senior Libyan officials and five Western diplomats closely tracking the war.”
According to the Reuters news agency, the so-called Wagner Group is formed by private military contractors who carry out secret missions for Russia.
The contractors are mostly ex-service personnel who have fought clandestinely in support of Russian forces in Syria and Ukraine, Reuters reported earlier this year, citing "interviews with dozens of contractors, their friends and relatives."
(gs)
Source: nytimes.com