Kenyan ‘Dogs of War’ fighting for Gaddafi..???

Kenyan mercenaries are among foreign soldiers helping the besieged Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi fight off an uprising. This was confirmed on Thursday by Col Gaddafi’s former Chief of Protocol Nouri Al Misrahi in an interview with the Al Jazeera broadcasting network. Mr Misrahi was detailing how Gaddafi had resorted to using mercenaries against his own people after losing control of the Libyan armed forces. When asked where the mercenaries came from and how they were recruited, the first country he mentioned was Kenya. Other countries he listed are Chad, Niger and Mali. He described the mercenaries as jobless ex-soldiers and officers who were enticed to Libya by money. He clarified that they were not sent officially by their governments, but were privateers recruited directly by the regime and they were being used to hunt and kill Libyan dissidents after Gaddafi’s armed police and soldiers abandoned him and “went with the people”. He said Gaddafi has no more trust in his own armed forces because they had largely defied orders to turn their guns on the demonstrators. “Those mercenaries are being used against Libyans, because Gaddafi has no more trust in his police and soldiers, they let him down and went to the people”. The mercenaries from African countries, he said, were poor and homeless former soldiers who were easily recruited over the years. The former senior official in Libya spoke as the government in Nairobi denied that Kenyan mercenaries were being used to execute Gaddafi’s brutal crackdown. However, there was an admission that retired police and army officers could be in Libya working for private companies. (Read: MP cites his worries over Kenyan ‘dogs of war’)