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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Libya
Index
In about 1980, Qadhafi introduced the Islamic Pan-African
Legion, a body of mercenaries recruited primarily among dissidents
from Sudan, Egypt, Tunisia, Mali, and Chad. West African states
with Muslim populations have also been the source of some
personnel. Believed to consist of about 7,000 individuals, the
force has received training from experienced Palestinian and Syrian
instructors. Some of those recruited to the legion were said to
have been forcibly impressed from among nationals of neighboring
countries who migrated to Libya in search of work.
According to The Military Balance published by the
International Institute for Strategic Studies, the force was
organized into one armored, one infantry, and one
paratroop/commando brigade. It has been supplied with T-54 and T-55
tanks, armored personnel carriers, and EE-9 armored cars. The
Islamic Pan-African Legion was reported to have been committed
during the fighting in Chad in 1980 and was praised by Qadhafi for
its success there. However, it was believed that many of the troops
who fled the Chadian attacks of March 1987 were members of the
Islamic Pan-African Legion.
In an effort to realize Qadhafi's vision of a united Arab
military force, plans for the creation of an Arab legion have been
announced from time to time. The goal, according to the Libyan
press, would be to assemble an army of 1 million men and women
fighters to prepare for the great Arab battle--"the battle of
liberating Palestine, of toppling the reactionary regimes, of
annihilating the borders, gates, and barriers between the countries
of the Arab homeland, and of creating the single Arab Jamahiriya
from the ocean to the gulf." In March 1985, it was announced that
the National Command of the Revolutionary Forces Command in the
Arab Nation had been formed with Qadhafi at its head. A number of
smaller radical Arab groups from Lebanon, Tunisia, Sudan, Iraq, the
Persian Gulf states, and Jordan were represented at the inaugural
meeting. Syrian Baath Party and radical Palestinian factions were
also present. Each of these movements was expected to earmark 10
percent of its forces for service under the new command. As of
April 1987, there was no information confirming the existence of
such a militia.
Data as of 1987
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