Libyan Training Camps

Libya has trained Palestinian and other terrorists in-country since the early 1970s. In addition to the principal facilities in and around Tripoli, over the past two decades the Libyans have operated smaller training camps dispersed throughout their country. On some occasions, terrorists are trained at Libyan military bases. For example, in 1988 members of the radical Palestinian group, the Popular Struggle Front, trained at an Air Force base in the Aouzou region. Members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command also are known to have trained in Libyan military camps. Non-Palestinian groups that have received training in Libya in recent years include the Ecuadorian Alfaro Vive, Carajo organization, Colombia's M-19, the Haitian Liberation Organization, the Chilean Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front, the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia, and the Japanese Red Army.

Trainees from Asia, Latin America, and Africa often go to Libya legally, usually pretending to be students. Sometimes, Third World nationals travel to Libya for what they believe to be legitimate schooling, such as technical or religious training. When they arrive, however, they find themselves met at the airport by soldiers, placed on a truck, and transported to a terrorist/dissident training camp. Those students hostile to Libyan overtures are summarily deported and branded as unworthy students.

Extremists travel to Libya using other methods as well. For example, radicals from Mauritius traveled to Tripoli in 1987, ostensibly to attend a youth conference. Instead, they went to a terrorist training camp.

• Seven April Training Camp. Located about 9 kilometers from Tripoli, the facility provides training in terrorism and subversion to Africans and Latin Americans, as well as to Libyan military personnel.
• Sidi: Bilal Port Facility. Terrorists who carried out the May 1990 seaborne attack against Israel were trained here.
• Bin Ghashir. Just south of Tripoli, it has been used to train dissidents from Africa, Asia, and Latin America in terorist/guerrilla tactics.
• Ras al Hilal. Palestinian terrorist groups have trained at this facility.