Eastern Libyan force warns will strike planes carrying military gear

DECEMBER 23, 2019 04:19

FILE PHOTO: An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight from Los Angeles lands at Reagan National Airport shortly after an announcement was made by the FAA that the planes were being grounded by the United States in Washington, U.S. March 13, 2019

The eastern-based Libyan National Army force said on Sunday it had monitored a Boeing 747-412 that had flown from Istanbul to Libya carrying military equipment.

LNA spokesman Ahmed Mismari warned other carriers against transporting weapons using civilian planes, adding that “the army will down and strike any plane” that carries weapons.

“The civilian status of aircraft is revoked as soon as they are used for military purposes,” Mismari told Reuters.

Mismari also said, in a video released on Sunday, that the LNA was extending an ultimatum it had given fighters in Misrata aligned with the internationally recognized Government of National Accord based in Tripoli. They would now have until Wednesday at midnight to withdraw from the city instead of midnight on Sunday.

Withdrawing forces would not be targeted, he said.

The LNA, led by commander Khalifa Haftar, has been trying since April to take Tripoli from the GNA, which was set up in 2016 following a U.N.-brokered deal.

Eastern Libyan forces seized a Grenada-flagged ship with a Turkish crew on Saturday off the Libyan coast, a spokesman said, amid rising tensions with Turkey, which supports the rival GNA in Tripoli