US to train Libya forces: Commander

Admiral William McRaven, the head of the US Special Operations Command, told a defense forum in California on November 16 that the US officials are in talks with Libyan authorities about the details of the training plan.

“Suffice to say that there is going to be a kind of conventional effort, to train their conventional forces, between 5 and 7,000 conventional forces,” he stated.

“And we have a complementary effort on the special operations side to train a certain number of their forces to do counter-terrorism,” McRaven added.

The central government in Libya is struggling to keep order as former militias, who helped the ouster of former dictator Muammar Gaddafi two years ago, refuse to disarm.

McRaven also stated that “we go forward to try and find a good way to build up the Libyan security forces so they are not run by militias, we are going to have to assume some risks,” because many of militiamen and former fighters remain loyal to their commanders or tribes and often clash in rivalries over control of territory.

“There is probably some risk that some of the people we will be training with do not have the most clean records. But at the end of the day it is the best solution we can find to train them to deal with their own problems.”

In September, Bulgarian Minister of Defense Angel Naydenov disclosed that the United States will carry out an eight-year plan to train Libyan forces in Bulgaria.

A US defense official said the plan would include training of small groups on a rotational basis over years in Bulgaria.

Nearly two years after the fall of Gaddafi, Libya is still plagued by lawlessness and insecurity, with armed groups flexing their muscles.

DB/HSN

Source Article from http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/11/18/335271/us-to-train-libya-forces-commander/

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