The Libyan army announces the destruction of the Russian air defense system “Pantsir ” upon its arrival at the “Al Wattia” air base
The Libyan army belongs to Tripoli government announced, on Saturday evening, its success in destroying the Russian air defense system “Pantsier” upon its arrival at the “Al Wattia” air base.
This came in a statement published by the media center for the Operation Volcano Fury, on its Facebook page.
The statement said: “Our heroic forces succeeded in destroying the Russian air defense system, with a snapshot a little while ago, upon their arrival at the Al Wattia Air Force Base”.
Activists close to General Khalifa Haftar circulated on social media pages pictures of the arrival of the Russian air defense system at the Al Wattia air base.
Since the beginning of this May, the Libyan Tripoli government air force has launched 57 raids targeting Haftar’s positions at Al Wattia base, according to data published by Operation Volcano Fury.
By the end of last April, the Libyan Tripoli government considered that “Al Wattia” was the most dangerous rule used by the Haftar forces in their attacks against the capital (Tripoli), and the countries supporting Haftar worked to be an Emirati base, similar to the “base of the servant” in Marj to the east.
“Al Wattia” base is the last important military position held by Haftar forces, in the area stretching from west Tripoli to the Tunisian border, and if it is not controlled by government forces, it will always pose a strong threat to the cities of the West Coast.
For its part, NATO expressed, on Saturday, its concern about the presence of mercenaries of the Russian company “Wagner”, in the ranks of the militia of the revolutionary general in Libya, Khalifa Haftar.
This came during a phone call to the Secretary General of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, with the Head of the Presidential Council of the Libyan Government in Tripoli, Fayez Al Sarraj, according to a statement published by the media office.
During the contact, the sides discussed military and security developments, and the gravity of the security situation in Libya, due to Haftar’s aggression on Tripoli and its environs.
Stoltenberg stressed “the necessity of applying the arms embargo by land and air, and not merely applying it by sea”.
He added that “NATO considers the Libyan government, the legitimate government, and does not deal with others”.
Stoltenberg considered targeting civilians and infrastructure “unacceptable”, and that “there is no military solution to the Libyan crisis”.
For his part, Fayez Al Sarraj expressed his hope that “cooperation with NATO will contribute to achieving stability and security in Libya”, stressing his steadfast stance towards aggression.
The two sides agreed to coordinate and cooperate between the alliance organs and the Libyan military and security institutions, and to activate the joint committees between the two sides.
In a related context, five civilians were killed and six others wounded, on Saturday, by shells fired by the militia of the revolutionary General Khalifa Haftar, south of the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
The media adviser to the Libyan Ministry of Health, Amin Al Hashemi, told Turkish official news agency Anadolu, that the bombing of the Haftar forces on the university dormitory housing the displaced in the Farnaj area, south of Tripoli, had caused, until 19:00 GMT (Saturday), the killing of 5 civilians and the injury of 6 others.
Al Hashemi explained that the dead were displaced people who were in the university campus and that the displaced families live in the areas of the clashes.
He pointed out that the bombing caused an ambulance to be hit at the target location, while it was carrying out rescue operations for the families in the university campus.
The same official had said earlier Saturday that the bombing had killed two civilians and wounded 3 others, before announcing the new toll.
Since April 4, 2019, the militia of Haftar, which is backed by regional and European countries, has staged a deadly attack to seize Tripoli, the seat of government.
