From Idlib to Tripoli: Turkey's grab for influence in Libya

Syrian mercenaries are just part of Istanbul's plan for supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean

The first time Wael Amr got on a plane was not quite what he had hoped for. Air travel in films led him to imagine how glamorous it would be to leave Syria's rebel-held Idlib province for an exotic holiday abroad.

Instead, in March the 22-year-old - who had signed up with Turkish military recruiters and travelled over the border to Turkey - took his first ever plane journey from Turkey to Libya, where he is now fighting on a dangerous frontline in someone else's war.