TUNIS, July 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A warplane belonging to eastern Libyan forces fighting the internationally recognized Tripoli government made an emergency landing in Tunisia on Monday and the pilot was detained.
Negotiations with Tunisian authorities to secure the release of the pilot were under way, the self-declared eastern foreign ministry said in a statement.
The plane landed on a road in the southern Tunisian town of Beni Khadash, Tunisia’s state news agency TAP said.
Tunisia’s defense ministry said the pilot informed the authorities that he was forced to make the landing after his plane was damaged.
Tunisia’s air force prepared to intercept the L-39 warplane but it landed before it could be reached, the ministry said in a statement on its website.
Witnesses said the plane touched down on a road and was surrounded by civilian vehicles that stopped to watch.
Libya has been splintered by violent turmoil since the 2011 fall of Muammar Gaddafi.
The eastern Libyan National Army under Khalifa Haftar is trying to take Tripoli from forces allied to the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), but the LNA offensive has bogged down on the capital’s outskirts. — NNN-AGENCIES
