France to probe whether Egypt used its intel to target civilians
A report from investigative website Disclose said that intelligence from a joint covert military mission in Libya may have been used by Egypt to target and killing smugglers.
France is investigating a report that its military intelligence was used by Egypt to kill civilians who were suspected of smuggling on the Libyan border, the French armed forces minister said Monday.
Citing hundreds of classified French documents, investigative website Disclose reported on Sunday that Cairo and Paris cooperated on a covert military operation codenamed Operation Sirli, which began as a way to search for terrorist threats coming from civil war-ravaged Libya. The French team consisted of four soldiers and six former servicemen, who arrived in Egypt’s western desert region in 2016.
“But very soon, the French team came to realize that they were being used to facilitate the murders of civilians who were suspected of smuggling activity,” Disclose wrote.
According to Disclose, French forces were linked to at least 19 bombings against civilians between 2016 to 2018, which killed as many as hundreds of people.
