© AFPGerman troops ready to take off from Bundeswehr airbase in Jagel, northern Germany.
"According to internal (government) plans German soldiers could, along with Italian colleagues, within months begin training the Libyan armed forces," the news magazine said, adding, "This would involve 150-200 Bundeswehr (German armed forces) troops."
Officials in Germany's Defense Ministry have yet to comment on the issue, although the report comes one day after the European Union, the body in which Germany has effectively the final say on security and defense cases, urged rival administrations in Libya to back a unity government, as demanded by the United Nations.
Comment: The EU has pledged 100M Euros to install a Libyan "unity" government.
Libya has been in chaos four years after dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled and later killed in October 2011. The internationally recognized government, based in Tobruk, eastern Libya, has been vying to recapture the capital, Tripoli, from the militants of the Libya Dawn movement. Takfiri groups, including Daesh terrorists, are also operating in Libya. There are fears of a spillover of violence into Europe.
Der Spiegel said the training mission would be based in Tunisia due to the security situation in Libya. A similar mission has already been carried out by Germany in Iraq, where the German soldiers have been training Kurdish Peshmerga forces north of the country.
The potential deployment comes amid an increasing presence of Germany on battlegrounds in Iraq and Syria, where the administration of Chancellor Angela Merkel is contributing more and more forces and weaponry to the so-called international coalition purportedly targeting Daesh positions.
On January 6, Berlin decided to deploy an additional 550 troops to missions against militants in Mali and Iraq.
Comment: A couple hundred armed German troops and "Italian colleagues" to train Libyan troops to fight Daesh...what does this signify? The EU is afraid. With Libya currently an ISIS-designated safe haven, complete with oil fields and facilities, the Islamic State and other hellacious factions are at EU's doorstep. For as long as it will take for the finagling Western cabal to infiltrate and dictate the new Libyan state, ISIS and cohorts will have a home base, protected and provided for by their creators. Europe is buying time. This black hole is on trajectory to get bigger.