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Libya: Air strike on Tebu Tibesti mountain control point
Tripoli, 26 November 2016:The Tebu-held Kilinja gate astride the main road into Kufra has been bombed for the second time in a month. Like its predecessor, this morning’s attack on the position 350 kilometres south-west of Rebyana caused no casualties. However it has highlighted concerns that the Marj-based army is moving more firmly against the Tebu who were once seen as its allies. Tebu sources say they have obtained a leaked document from Marj which sets out the new policy. Dated 22 September this year, it apparently gives full authority to the army’s Kufra Operations Room to cleanse both Rebyana and Um Aranib in the south-west from what it had described as “criminals” and “rogues”. Today’s attack was said to have been carried out by an AT-802 – also known as an Air Tractor because it is based on a US crop-spraying aircraft. It is not known that the Libyan airforce operate this aircraft type. However the UAE does and is supposed to be flying six of them from Al-Khadim air base to the south-east of Marj and Jardas Al-Abid. The AT-802 has a range of some 1200 km which would mean that if it was an aircraft from Al-Khadim it would need to have been operating from a forward airfield, probably Kufra. The Kilinja gate has been under Tebu control since 2011. It is regarded as a major transit point for human traffickers and drugs smugglers, including migrants and contraband coming from the Siwa and Farafra oases in Egypt. The gate controls the main pass into the Tibesti mountains and Chad. The area remains heavily mined from Qaddafi’s conflict with Chad between 1978 and 1989. Posted by: badanov 2016-11-27 |
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