Libya Hit Haftar Forward Airbase After Receiving Turkish Drones
Tripoli Government Says It Struck Haftar’s Main Forward Airbase
(Bloomberg) -- Libya’s internationally-recognized government said it conducted airstrikes for the first time against the main forward airbase for eastern-based strongman Khalifa Haftar, destroying a hangar containing drones and a Russian-made military transport plane.
The strike on the airbase in Jufra, Haftar’s central Libyan staging ground for a three-month offensive on Tripoli, came days after the strongman’s forces announced a renewed attempt to seize the capital in a battle that has stalled at the city’s outskirts and drawn in increasing foreign intervention.
The Tripoli-based Government of National Accord was not known to have aircraft capable of conducting precision nighttime strikes. It has improved its capabilities with the receipt of armed Turkish Bayraktar drones in recent weeks, according to three senior GNA officials, who asked not to be named because the weapons supplies aren’t public. Libya has been under a United Nations arms embargo since 2011.
Bayraktar, the drone company, is owned by the family of a son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Officials at the company declined to comment when reached by Bloomberg. Facing opposition criticism in parliament for alleged arms shipments to Libya, Emrullah Isler, Erdogan’s envoy to the country, said earlier this month that Turkey supports the legitimate, UN-backed government in Tripoli, without elaborating.
On the other side of the battle, Haftar’s forces have been supported by U.A.E-owned and Chinese-made Wing Loong drones, according to two Western diplomats.
The strike on the Jufra airbase destroyed “a hangar containing drones and an Ilyushin 76 transport plane used to supply the armed groups,” the GNA military statement said, referring to Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army.
Libya splintered in the aftermath of the NATO-backed overthrow of dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi in 2011. Haftar’s eastern-based forces swept through the south earlier this year before setting their sights on the capital.
To contact the reporter on this story: Samer Khalil Al-Atrush in Cairo at skhalilalatr@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Benjamin Harvey at bharvey11@bloomberg.net, Mark Williams
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