The Libyan National Army announced Sunday the downing of another Turkish drone in the al-Ajaylat area near the al-Watiya airbase, some 140 kilometers southwest of the capital, Tripoli.
This takes to four the number of Turkish drones shot down by the army in 24 hours.
Moreover, the LNA’s 134th brigade denied that the units protecting the Watiya base had come under any attack by forces loyal to the Government of National Accord (GNA). The alleged footage of the attack was taken from the Syrian war, it clarified. No Turkish drones opened fire at the base.
Separately, LNA official Khaled al-Mahjoub told Asharq Al-Awsat that the military was not disclosing the large number of mercenaries it has arrested on the Tripoli battlefronts. Mercenaries from various countries have been detained and they will be deported once investigations with them are complete.
They are being probed over the date they arrived in Libya, the networks that smuggled them and where they were recruited and trained, he added.
Meanwhile, seven people were killed and 17 wounded in shelling that struck a migrant detention center near Tripoli. The GNA blamed the LNA for the attack.
The shelling caused a fire at the shelter in Fornaj district, located near a frontline and home to people forced from their homes after earlier bouts of fighting, said Usama Ali, spokesman for Tripoli’s emergency and ambulance service. Six of the deceased were from Bangladesh.
Intermittent fighting was reported between the LNA and forces loyal to the GNA in Tripoli. LNA media reported that seven Syrian mercenaries fighting for the GNA and flown in by Turkey had surrendered to their forces on Saturday night.
The GNA said it has destroyed two Russian anti-aircraft systems soon after their delivery to the LNA. It said its fighter jets struck the Pantsir systems within hours of their delivery at the Watiya base.
This marks the first time that the GNA announces the destruction of a Russian air defense system since the beginning of the conflict on April 4, 2019.
