The eastern-based Libyan National Army, led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, has downed an Italian unmanned aerial vehicles ( Italian Air Force General Atomics MQ-9A Predator B ) in the west of the country, Ahmed Mismari, the LNA spokesman, said on Thursday.
Mismari said the Italian drone had been shot down by the LNA’s air defense forces.
The spokesman emphasized that the LNA’s supreme command was waiting for Italy to explain reasons for its drone to have entered Libya’s air space.
Yesterday Italian Ministry of Defence said that “During a surveillance mission made for “Mare Sicuro” operation the contact with the drone was lost and the drone crashed, without control, near Tarhuma. ”
The Italian statement doesn’t report a shooting down and the delimited site of the crash doesn’t seem, at first sight, to suggest that the drone was hit by a missile (as LNA said). But at this stage we have no evidence to say what version (Italian or Lybian) is correct.
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