(Tripoli) Drone strikes of unknown origin targeted, overnight from Thursday to Friday, an air base in eastern Libya where mercenaries from the Russian paramilitary group Wagner were located, without causing any casualties, according to a military sources.
The source, who requested anonymity, told AFP that drones “of unknown origin hit al-Kharrouba air base, located 150 km southeast of Benghazi (east), where there would be elements of the Wagner group”.
“The strikes caused no casualties,” she added.
Libya has been in the throes of a major political crisis since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011, plagued by divisions between East and West and by foreign interference.
From April 2019 to June 2020, Khalifa Haftar, the strongman of eastern Libya, used Chadian, Sudanese, Nigerian and Syrian fighters, but above all Wagner mercenaries, in his failed attempt to seize the capital Tripoli.
Since then, hundreds of Wagner members have remained active in the east, the area of the oil terminals, and in southern Libya after the departure of part of their personnel to Mali or to the Ukraine to fight in the alongside the Russian army.