Rain falls as we assemble on the runway at the Stuttgart army airfield in southern Germany. It is 2:30 a.m. and a Dash 8 awaits boarding for the flight to Sirte, Libya. In 2015 the Islamic State turned that coastal city into its largest stronghold outside Iraq and Syria; Libyan forces, aided by US airstrikes, only retook Sirte after months of heavy fighting. But the battle for Sirte was one episode in a wider civil war that has fragmented the country.
After years of conflict, rival Libyan factions agreed to a ceasefire in 2020, yet the country has effectively remained split since 2014. The west is governed from Tripoli by the UN-brokered Government of National Unity (GNU), led by Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah and recognized internationally. The east answers to an administration in Tobruk under Osama Hammad, supported by Khalifah Haftar, the former warlord turned political leader.
This week Sirte is hosting Flintlock 2026, a US-led special operations exercise involving about 30 nations. Flintlock, held across Africa and Europe since 2005, traditionally brings together regional partners for counterterrorism drills. For the first time, however, Libya is hosting parts of the exercise and troops from both eastern and western forces are training side by side.
On the Dash 8 is Lieutenant General John Brennan, deputy commander of US Africa Command, traveling to observe the drills. He repeatedly highlights the significance of bringing the two Libyan sides together. “The Libyan people deserve unified security forces to protect them and their interests,” Brennan says. “Security breeds prosperity.” That soldiers from east and west can train together, wearing common uniforms during Flintlock 2026, is being hailed as a major step.
US officials frame the engagement in both security and economic terms. Western intelligence agencies are wary of the spread of terrorist groups like Islamic State and al-Qaeda across the region — groups that have expanded rapidly in parts of Africa, especially the Sahel, where kidnappings and large-scale attacks have grown more frequent. From the American perspective, stabilizing Libya helps prevent such threats from spilling outward.
At the same time, US planners are looking for areas where security and economic interests converge. A US defense official says the exercise is meant to identify those overlaps, in line with a national security strategy that emphasizes economic security and access to critical supply chains and materials. The US administration at the time is described as keen to secure regional resources.
Other powers are pursuing similar interests. Russia has sought footholds in Libya’s oil and mineral sectors. Wagner Group mercenaries — now billed as the Africa Corps — have been active since 2019, supplying equipment and working with forces aligned with Haftar. China’s approach in Africa focuses on long-term access to critical minerals through major investments in mining.
After a five-hour flight we arrive in Sirte and move out in a long convoy of SUVs, flanked by soldiers, police and armored vehicles. The training scenario staged for visiting delegations involves terrorists who have kidnapped migrants and are holding them hostage. Libyan and US special forces must free the hostages and neutralize the threat. Units move quickly as generals and diplomats, including Italy’s ambassador to Libya, Gianluca Alberini, observe.
“For Italy, Europe and the US, a united Libya will be able to provide stability to the whole region,” Alberini says. When asked whether rival factions are genuinely committed to unity, he admits it is a process and calls increased US engagement “a big factor.”
Two years ago, a joint operations center hosting all Libyan forces would have seemed unlikely. Today, military chiefs from east and west in Sirte are talking about reunification as a necessity rather than an option. Brennan notes that the prospect of significant economic investment “is an incentive for a reunification.” Many officials here also believe that a unified Libyan military could reduce Russia’s sway.
The concern about Russian influence is informed by developments across the Sahel, where coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger led to the expulsion of Western forces and a turn toward Moscow. Western governments do not want that pattern replicated in neighboring states. Since 2024 Russia has reportedly doubled its military deployments in West Africa, and it has sought to expand its footprint in Libya as well — reopening an embassy in Tripoli in 2024 and allegedly moving personnel and equipment to an abandoned base near the borders with Chad and Sudan.
“The significant Russian military presence in Libya on the southern flank of NATO is obviously a concern for us,” British Ambassador Martin Reynolds says in Sirte. “We would like to see a government we can work closely with, one which does not see the need to bring in foreign powers in the way it is currently happening.”
As Flintlock 2026 proceeds, the exercise is intended to demonstrate that cooperation on the ground is possible and to encourage political momentum toward reintegration. Whether joint training translates into a lasting unified force, and whether that unity will meaningfully curb external influence and unlock economic opportunity, remains to be seen. For now, Sirte has become a rare venue where competing Libyan elements, Western allies and regional partners can test the promise of partnership.