Suspicious, Unprecedented Turkish Air Activity off Libyan Coast

Nawal Sayed

A military official in the General Command of the Libyan National Army (LNA) , led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, said Sunday that his intelligence and information apparatus monitored suspicious and unprecedented Turkish air activity off the Libyan coast during the past few days, according to a report published by Al-Arabiya website.

The director of the Libyan Army's Monitoring and Follow-up Agency, Ghaith Esbak, told Al-Arabiya.Net that "F-16" fighter planes loaded with missiles and "Boeing 135-C" and "A7" planes were detected on the Libyan coasts.

He pointed out that Turkish war fighters carried out missions targeting Libyan army sites, and returned to a Turkish warship stationed off the Libyan coast east of the city of Sabratah.

The same spokesman denied what Turkey said, which attributed its military presence in the Mediterranean to its conducting military exercises, adding that “In the past days, Ankara has provided the largest military air support to the Government of the National Accord (GNA), and developed it to include sending combat fighters, after it was restricted to drones.”

In another context, and in a video clip, one of the fighters of the GNA forces, Salem Salem Belaid Salem, who belongs to the "terrorist organization" of Benghazi Shura Council, after being arrested by the LNAS forces on Sunday on one of the fighting fronts south of the capital Tripoli, admitted driving a Turkish F-16 fighter from a Turkish warship in the Mediterranean and disembarked it in the port of Tripoli, to carry out combat missions in favor of the forces of the GNA.

Suspicious, Unprecedented Turkish Air Activity off Libyan Coast The GNA forces seized control of two strategic cities in western Libya, Sorman and Sabratah, with Turkish air support using drones and military support with ammunition and Syrian mercenaries.