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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has become the Tripoli governments last major patron, providing armed drones, armored vehicles and, in the past week, Turkish troops.

Turkish officials say their troops will act mostly in an advisory role and avoid front-line combat. But there are indications, from American officials and from videos posted on the internet, that Ankara has deployed Syrian irregulars to Libya, drawn from units that fought the Kurds in northeastern Syria last year.

The increasingly prominent foreign role drew an angry rebuke from the United Nations envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salam, who told reporters on Monday that probably thousands of foreign mercenaries had arrived in Libya to participate in the fight.

The battle has displaced 300,000 people and caused over 2,200 deaths.

Mr. Salam blamed one of Mr. Hifters foreign backers he didnt specify which one for a drone strike on a government military facility near Tripoli on Saturday that killed 30 unarmed military recruits. His message to every foreign power mired in the conflict, he said: Get out of Libya.

In Brussels on Tuesday, the foreign ministers of Britain, Germany, France and Italy, as well as Josep Borrell, the foreign policy chief of the European Union, issued a joint statement condemning the continuing outside interference in the conflict.

Mr. Borrell singled out Turkey for criticism.

We asked for a cease-fire and we asked also to stop escalation and external interference, which has been increasing in the past days, he told reporters. It is obvious that this makes a reference to the Turkish decision to intervene with their troops in Libya.

Located about halfway along Libyas Mediterranean coastline, Surt has long straddled the geographic and political fault lines that divide eastern and western Libya, said Frederic Wehrey, a Libya specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

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Libya Rebels Capture Key Coastal City in Threat to U.N.-Backed Government - The New York Times