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Turkish snipers and storm groups are fighting in the ranks of Libya's Government of National Accord (GNA) in the capital of Tripoli. The LNA units gain control over new positions in Tripoli daily.

"We saw Turkish soldiers fighting on the ground in the direction of Khallet al-Furjan in Tripoli among the GNA armed militias. We saw them with our own eyes... snipers and Turkish storming groups. The progress is slow but continuous."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country will send troops to Libya at Tripoli's request as soon as January, a move that could put them face-to-face with Kremlin-linked mercenaries allegedly fighting in the troubled North African country.

Moscow has warned Turkey against its pending deployment to Libya.

But Erdogan has rejected Russian criticism and said Turkey will not be silent over mercenaries from the Kremlin-linked Vagner private security firm supporting Haftar.

Moscow has not confirmed the Vagner group's presence in Libya nor whether it has supported the fighters.

"Russia is there with 2,000 Vagner [fighters]," Erdogan said, also referring to 5,000 fighters from Sudan in Libya.

"Is the official government inviting them? No," Erdogan said. "They are all helping a war baron [Haftar], whereas we are accepting an invitation from the legitimate government of the country. That is the difference," he said.

The legitimacy of the government inviting Turkey into the conflict is still an open question. The UN-backed GNA does not have wide support in Libya.

Libya's elected government demands UN's usurper regime gone

Representatives for Haftar's forces could not be reached for comment.

Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat and chairman of the Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies, told Reuters that Russian mercenaries had put more pressure on the GNA and "accelerated this quid pro quo between Tripoli and Ankara."

"So the troop deployment must happen right away, but the risk is that Turkey is being sucked into a military game where the only path is more engagement and escalation," he said.

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Foreign interference in Libya's affairs will only prolong the internal conflict and add to the suffering of Libyan people, the League of Arab States (LAS) said on Thursday, amid the Turkish president's plans to get a mandate to send troops to the conflict-hit country.

Earlier in the day, Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that he would put the troop deployment to help Libya's Government of National Accord (GNA) to parliamentary vote next month. The GNA interior minister, in turn, said that a request for Turkish military assistance would be contingent on the severity of hostilities with the rival Libyan National Army (LNA).

US President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi agreed during a Thursday phone that they reject "foreign exploitation" in Libya and that the involved parties must take "urgent steps" to resolve the conflict, according to the White House.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on December 27 criticized new U.S. legislation that imposes sanctions on European companies building the Russian Nord Stream 2 natural-gas pipeline to Germany. She is the latest European official to speak out about the unilateral sanctions.

"The EU Commission emphatically rejects sanctions against European companies that engage in projects in line with the law," Von der Leyen said.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said recently that the pipeline might be delayed by a couple of months due to the fresh U.S. sanctions but there was nothing "catastrophic" about the situation.

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz last week called the sanctions "a severe intervention in German and European internal affairs."

Von der Leyen, though, said the commission must protect the interests of its eastern member states.

Shortly after Trump signed the sanctions bill into law, Russia and Ukraine agreed on a new gas transit contract through 2024. Russia had been pushing initially for a one-year contract, while Ukraine was seeking 10 years. Analysts said the U.S. sanctions may have helped Ukraine get a better deal.