BENGHAZI: Forces loyal to eastern commander Khalifa Haftar shot down a Tripoli government warplane purportedly flown by a foreign mercenary south of the Libyan capital on Tuesday, the Libyan National Army (LNA) said.

The LNA media unit released photographs of what it said was the pilot receiving medical treatment while seated on a chair. One showed an LNA commander, Abdulsalam al-Hassi, standing behind him.

Video posted on social media, which an LNA source said was authentic, showed the pilot, looking groggy and wearing a blood-soaked T-shirt and khaki jacket, being questioned in English.

Asked his name, he said what sounded to be Jimmy Rees but his answer was not clear. He gave his age as 29 and said he was “from Portugal”.

Asked what he was doing in Libya, he said: “I was requested to destroy roads and bridges”. Asked who sent him, he said it was a civilian contract with someone called Hadi but he did not know his full name.

In Lisbon, the Portuguese Defence Ministry and they could not confirm the pilot’s nationality.

“For now the only thing we can say is that he is not a Portuguese soldier,” a ministry spokeswoman said.

Correspondents in Lisbon said the man did not sound Portuguese.

A spokesman for forces aligned with the internationally recognised government which is based in Tripoli had no immediate comment on the incident.

Residents of Gharyan, about 80 km south of Tripoli, said that when the plane was heard overhead, anti-aircraft fire opened up. There was an explosion as it was hit.

“The jet was shot down in Al-Hira town (10 km from Gharyan) and I saw LNA troops capturing the pilot,” a Gharyan resident said.

The eastern-based LNA, led by Haftar and backed principally by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, began an offensive against Tripoli in early April but its advance has been blocked by forces loyal to Tripoli on the city’s southern outskirts.

The escalation is a setback for efforts by the United Nations and Western states to end the chaos and political division in Libya eight years after a Nato-backed uprising that toppled former leader Muammar Qaddafi.

Macron to meet Sarraj

French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday meets Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, who has accused Paris of supporting his rival and tacitly backing his assault on Tripoli, a presidential source said.

Relations between the two leaders have soured since strongman Khalifa Haftar launched a campaign last month against Sarraj and his internationally recognised Government of National Accord.

Sarraj claimed France had switched sides to support a “dictator”, in comments deemed “unacceptable and unfounded” by the presidential source on Tuesday.

“France supports Prime Minister Sarraj and was opposed to Haftar’s military offensive against Tripoli,” the source said, while reiterating that France had maintained contacts with actors on both sides of the conflict.

On April 4, Haftar launched a drive towards Tripoli where Sarraj’s UN-recognised government is based, triggering fighting that has claimed nearly 400 lives.

Macron intends to ask Sarraj about the humanitarian situation and see if he has proposals to end the conflict, which appears to have reached a stalemate in recent days.

“Sarraj is a pragmatic politician whom we can work with,” the source said.

“But in his entourage and among his supporters there are some extremists, clans and factions which think it’s easier to accuse foreigners, in this case the countries which have been the most active, like France.”

On Tuesday, Sarraj met in Rome with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who appeared to rule out any military intervention in Libya.

He was later to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and may travel to London as part of his tour to drum up European support for his beleaguered government.

The French government “has coordinated closely” with officials in Rome, Berlin and London in order to ensure a consistent message on Libya, the presidential source said.

Britain has pushed for a resolution at the UN Security Council demanding a ceasefire in Libya, but its efforts have foundered against opposition from Russia and the United States.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2019