http://www.intelligenceonline.com/article/read_article.aspx?doc_i_id=88417562&service=ART&Context=PRT
Issue no. 636 dated 03 march, 2011 LIBYA / SYRIA Syrian mercenaries on standby for Libya A long-standing ally of Tripoli, Damascus has Syrian pilots ready to take part in Libyan bombing raids, should Gaddhafi declare full-scale war on the country’s growing opposition. According to information obtained by Intelligence Online in Damascus, Colonel Muammar Gaddhafi and President Bashar al-Assad spoke on the phone last week. During the conversation, the Libyan leader asked if Syrian officers and technicians currently training the Libyan air force could be put at Tripoli's disposal. A number of Libyan pilots have defected, some of them along with their aircraft, robbing the Libyan regime of their savoir faire at a critical time for Gaddhafi. Tripoli's air superiority is its principal weapon against insurgents. The European Union and the U.S have recently made contingency plans for imposing a no-fly zone over Libya, to prevent bombing raids by the Libyan Air Force. But Russia and Turkey oppose the move, and no final decisions have yet been taken. On February 23, President Assad told General Isam Hallaq, the commander in chief of the Syrian air force, to instruct the pilots and technicians in Tripoli to help the Libyan regime, should Gaddhafi decide to bombard dissident regions. The Syrian soldiers in Libya are part of a mission established in 1984 following the signature of a military agreement between Gaddhafi and Syria’s long-time ruler Hafez al-Assad, in the presence of General Soubhi Haddad, who was the commander in chief of the air force at the time. Both air forces are equipped with Russian materiel and have had long-standing close links with Moscow. In exchange for Syria’s help, Libya committed to helping the Syrian state financially and covering the cost of certain operations carried out by the Syrian intelligence services. Libyan money helped Hafez al-Assad bribe his brother Rifaat, the author of an attempted coup d’etat in 1983, to leave the country and go into exile in Spain and France , where he has remained ever since. On Gaddafi's request Damascus has also sent a second team of pilots and technicians to Tripoli. These are lower-ranking officers loyal to the regime who are specialized in flying helicopters. Before their departure for Tripoli on Feburary 23, they met with General Allaq and General Jamil Hasan, head of the air force's intelligence service.
