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Libyan National Army Prepares for Air Battle by Downing 7 Turkish Drones

A destroyed and burnt tank is seen in Gharyan south of Tripoli Libya June 27, 2019. (Reuters)
A destroyed and burnt tank is seen in Gharyan south of Tripoli Libya June 27, 2019. (Reuters)
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Libyan National Army Prepares for Air Battle by Downing 7 Turkish Drones

A destroyed and burnt tank is seen in Gharyan south of Tripoli Libya June 27, 2019. (Reuters)
A destroyed and burnt tank is seen in Gharyan south of Tripoli Libya June 27, 2019. (Reuters)

The Libyan National Army (LNA), commanded by Khalifa Haftar, announced on Friday the downing of seven Turkish drones, in what was interpreted as a response to Ankara’s warning to the military of “grave consequences” if its interests in Libya were attacked.

Hours after Ankara’s threat, the LNA announced that its air defenses shot down seven Turkish drones in various regions in less than six hours.

The LNA said drones of the “Turkish invaders” were downed in the Qaryat and Abou al-Gharib regions south of Bani Walid and Tarhuna cities. Another aircraft was shot down over Wishka.

This takes to 90 the number of drones downed by the LNA since it launched its operation to liberate Tripoli in April 2019.

The LNA also announced the destruction of 20 Government of National Accord (GNA) armored vehicles in an airstrike in Gharyan city.

Politically, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized the flow of weapons to Libya.

Pompeo placed a phone call to GNA chief Fayez al-Sarraj to "reiterate US opposition to the continued level of weapons and munitions being brought into the country," the State Department said.

The statement was seen as a jab at Turkey that has been backing the GNA with weapons.

Pompeo and Sarraj "emphasized the importance of an immediate halt to the fighting and return to political dialogue," a statement said.

Fighting on Thursday centered around al-Asbiah, some 120 kilometers west of Tripoli. LNA spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari said the military carried out a series of airstrikes against Turkish President Recep Tayyip “Erdogan’s takfiri militias” in Asbiah and the surrounding regions.

Mismari said four warplanes have become newly available after they were out of service for a long time. He added that LNA teams succeeded in refurbishing them, without specifying the type of aircraft, but promising “excellent results” from them.

“The time has come for them to be used at their maximum fire power,” he stressed.

The GNA, meanwhile, did not announce any new accomplishment on the ground, with a spokesman calling on the residents of Tarhuna, Wishka, Mizdah and Sirte to steer clear of LNA positions. The GNA will provide safe passage for trapped civilians.

In Tarhuna, after days of military buildup, the GNA said it was blocking the coastal road stretching from Castelverde to al-Qoaah, claiming it was protecting civilians from the LNA’s arbitrary shelling.

The GNA had recently launched an attack in an attempt to recapture Tarhuna from the LNA.

The United Nations Support Mission in Libya, meanwhile, expressed its concern over the latest fighting in the country.

In a terse statement, it said it “is following with great concern the military developments and mobilization around the city of Tarhuna. UNSMIL reminds all parties of their obligations in accordance with international humanitarian law and warns against any acts of retribution, including attacks against civilians, extrajudicial punishments, looting, robberies and torching of public and private properties. UNSMIL calls on all parties to refrain from military escalation and resort to peaceful means.”

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Arab World

Israel Backs Trump's 2-week Pause on Iran Strikes, Says Lebanon Excluded

FILE PHOTO: An Israeli artillery unit fires towards Lebanon, on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, in northern Israel, March 17, 2026. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: An Israeli artillery unit fires towards Lebanon, on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, in northern Israel, March 17, 2026. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
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Israel Backs Trump's 2-week Pause on Iran Strikes, Says Lebanon Excluded

FILE PHOTO: An Israeli artillery unit fires towards Lebanon, on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, in northern Israel, March 17, 2026. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: An Israeli artillery unit fires towards Lebanon, on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, in northern Israel, March 17, 2026. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo

Israel supports US President Donald Trump's decision to suspend strikes against Iran for two weeks, but the ceasefire does not include Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Wednesday.

The premier's office said Israel backed the US move provided Tehran immediately opened the strait and stopped attacks against the United States, Israel and countries in the region.

The remarks came after Washington announced a two-week suspension of attacks ⁠against Iran as ⁠part of efforts to de-escalate the conflict and open a window for negotiations.

Israel also said it supported US efforts to ensure Iran no longer posed a nuclear, missile or "terror" threat to the US, Israel and Iran's Arab neighbors, ⁠adding that Washington had told Israel it was committed to achieving their shared goals in upcoming negotiations. Iran said on Wednesday negotiations with the US would begin on Friday, April 10 in Islamabad.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that the United States and its allies had agreed to a ceasefire "everywhere including Lebanon", suggesting Israel had agreed to halt its invasion of its northern neighbor.”

Lebanon was drawn into the war after Iran-backed group Hezbollah launched rocket fire on Israel.

That attack sparked an Israeli invasion and air raids across Lebanon that have killed more than 1,500 people, according to authorities.

Arab World

Israeli Threats Shut Masnaa Crossing, Partly Isolate Lebanon from Syria

The Masnaa border crossing with Syria in the Bekaa Valley, eastern Lebanon, 05 April 2026, following an Israeli warning to target the M30 highway between Lebanon and Syria. (EPA)
The Masnaa border crossing with Syria in the Bekaa Valley, eastern Lebanon, 05 April 2026, following an Israeli warning to target the M30 highway between Lebanon and Syria. (EPA)
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Israeli Threats Shut Masnaa Crossing, Partly Isolate Lebanon from Syria

The Masnaa border crossing with Syria in the Bekaa Valley, eastern Lebanon, 05 April 2026, following an Israeli warning to target the M30 highway between Lebanon and Syria. (EPA)
The Masnaa border crossing with Syria in the Bekaa Valley, eastern Lebanon, 05 April 2026, following an Israeli warning to target the M30 highway between Lebanon and Syria. (EPA)

Israel has partially severed Beirut from Damascus after shutting the main border crossings between the two countries, following a warning that it would strike the Masnaa crossing.

The move has disrupted trade and travel, funneling movement through a single crossing in Lebanon’s far northeast, far from both capitals.

Syrian and Lebanese diplomatic contacts helped avert an Israeli strike on Masnaa, but failed to reopen it. The crossing remains fully closed. Major General Hassan Choucair, head of Lebanon’s General Security, said protecting personnel and equipment at the crossing was the top priority.

He stressed the crossing was legal and could not be used for arms smuggling, noting all trucks and vehicles undergo strict inspections, and dismissed reports of smuggling as false.

Security measures

A Lebanese security source flatly rejected Israeli claims that the crossings are used to smuggle weapons, saying traffic in both directions is subject to strict inspections by Lebanese and Syrian authorities, making any such operations impossible.

The source told Asharq Al-Awsat the allegations were baseless and carried political and security motives beyond counter-smuggling.

The Israeli escalation over the crossings forms part of broader pressure linked to the war on Lebanon, the source said, and may pave the way for a land blockade along the Lebanese-Syrian border to redraw the rules of engagement with Hezbollah.

The source warned the developments could signal a new security reality on the border ahead of any future confrontation.

Undeclared blockade

Border crossings are no longer mere transit points; they have become a focal point where economic strain meets security and political tensions. With movement paralyzed, losses mounting, and tensions rising, Lebanon appears to be entering a phase of compounded pressure, widely seen as an undeclared blockade.

MP Sajih Attieh, head of parliament’s public works committee, said conditions at the crossings are steadily deteriorating. Of five crossings with Syria, only one remains effectively open, Jousieh in the Qaa area.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that three crossings in Akkar, Aboudieh, Arida, and Al-Buqiaa remain shut, while efforts to reopen Aboudieh are being hindered by Syrian hesitation due to limited security capacity.

Masnaa, the main artery between Lebanon and Syria in the Bekaa Valley, has been paralyzed since Sunday night after the Israeli warning. Activity has shifted to Jousieh, where trucks loaded with goods are backed up on both sides, along with civilian traffic.

Attieh said the closures have nearly halted land transit and cross-border trade, hitting key facilities, notably the port of Tripoli, which is losing about $100,000 a day due to the suspension of overland transit goods.

State revenues fall

The closures have also choked Lebanese exports, especially fruit, vegetables and local industries, which have lost their main overland route to Arab markets, adding pressure on productive sectors.

Attieh said the impact extends beyond exports. Maritime imports have dropped by up to 70%, affected by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, triggering a sharp fall in state revenues.

Monthly revenues from customs, imports and value-added tax have fallen from about $450 million to roughly $125 million, he said, adding that the government has frozen implementation of the 2026 budget.

Public spending had been set based on revenues nearing $6 billion, making the freeze unavoidable amid a roughly 70% drop in imports, he said, warning that the risk of a deeper economic crisis will become clearer once the war ends.

Arab World

Anger, Sorrow at Funeral of Lebanese Forces Official Killed by Israel

07 April 2026, Lebanon, Yahshoush: Mourners carry the coffins of Lebanese Forces official Pierre Mouawad and his wife during their funeral procession in the village of Yahshoush, northeast of Beirut. (dpa)
07 April 2026, Lebanon, Yahshoush: Mourners carry the coffins of Lebanese Forces official Pierre Mouawad and his wife during their funeral procession in the village of Yahshoush, northeast of Beirut. (dpa)
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Anger, Sorrow at Funeral of Lebanese Forces Official Killed by Israel

07 April 2026, Lebanon, Yahshoush: Mourners carry the coffins of Lebanese Forces official Pierre Mouawad and his wife during their funeral procession in the village of Yahshoush, northeast of Beirut. (dpa)
07 April 2026, Lebanon, Yahshoush: Mourners carry the coffins of Lebanese Forces official Pierre Mouawad and his wife during their funeral procession in the village of Yahshoush, northeast of Beirut. (dpa)

At a church in the mountains outside Beirut, Raymonda Mouawad raged as she buried her brother, killed by an Israeli strike in a war against Hezbollah that he had nothing to do with.

"We shouldn't be forced to bear the guilt of others' mistakes," she said, her voice filled with anger and sorrow.

"We're done with Israel and Hezbollah. That's all I want to say," she told AFP at the church, which was overflowing with hundreds of family members, friends and supporters.

Pierre Mouawad, a local official in the Lebanese Forces (LF) -- which is strongly opposed to Hezbollah -- was killed on Easter Sunday along with his wife Flavia and another woman.

The Israeli strike on a residential building in Ain Saadeh, east of Beirut, was the latest attack outside Hezbollah's traditional strongholds since the armed group drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 with rocket fire towards Israel in support of its backer Iran.

That attack sparked an Israeli invasion and air raids across Lebanon that have killed more than 1,500 people, according to authorities.

- Sectarian tensions -

The couple's coffins, draped in LF flags, arrived in Mouawad's hometown of Yahshoush in a packed procession to the deafening sound of automatic gunfire and fireworks as mourners threw rice and flower petals.

LF anthems blared in the church courtyard, where some men in military-style garb stood among the mourners.

Israel's strikes in majority-Christian and Sunni areas, including on hotels or apartments reportedly rented by people displaced by fighting, have stoked fear and division in a country where sectarian tensions have previously ended in bloodshed.

"We opened our homes to them... and in the end they came among us to harm us," said Raymonda, referring to people who have fled the majority-Shiite areas of Lebanon where Israeli strikes are most intense.

But Lebanon's army said Monday that its investigation showed there were "no new tenants" in the targeted building.

Investigations are ongoing "to uncover the circumstances of the Israeli attack", the army said, warning that speculation over "sensitive security matters... could lead to domestic tensions".

Israel's military has said it struck a "terrorist target" east of Beirut, and was reviewing the incident after "reports of casualties among Lebanese civilians".

President Joseph Aoun said in a statement on Tuesday that some were "exploiting fears of sectarian strife to serve their own interests", adding: "I will not allow strife."

LF leader Samir Geagea, who sent flowers to the funeral, said that "the Israelis were targeting a member of the Quds Force", the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' foreign operations arm, but he did not seem to have been killed.

- 'We don't want war' -

"Where is the state? There is no oversight, there's nothing, there are just lies," Raymonda said.

Nurse Fadia Mrad Atallah, 55, a friend of the couple's, said she was shocked by the news of their deaths.

"We've had enough bloodshed. We don't want war," she said.

"Whoever wants to wage war should go to Iran," she added.

Sam Hanna, 56, showed a series of missed calls from Pierre Mouawad on Sunday as he and his friend tried to arrange for a coffee meetup that would never happen.

"I told him, I can't, I have to pick my wife up from work, I'll come down and meet you at 7:00 pm. He told me he'd be waiting for me. I wish I had told him to come."

Scrolling through photos of them together, Hanna asked who his friend had died for.

"For Khamenei? No, his blood can't have been spilled for this," he said, referring to Iran's slain supreme leader.

Another friend, Marwan Khoury, 53, showed a video of his "last journey" with Mouawad -- accompanying his coffin inside the hearse.

"It wasn't Pierre's time," he said.

"Neither him nor anyone else should go like this."