Tripoli government accuses Emirati airliner bombing of Misrata airport

Libya's National Accord government on Saturday accused an "Emirates pilot" of bombing the Misrata International Airport (200 kilometers east of Tripoli) in support of retired Major General Khalifa Hifter, injuring one person and injuring two planes.

Since April 4, Hifter's forces have staged a faltering offensive to take control of the capital Tripoli, the seat of the internationally recognized government of reconciliation.

The operation "volcano of anger", carried out by the forces of the government of reconciliation, that "the bombing came as a cowardly reaction to the targeting of our forces to the militias of Hifter mercenaries from Russia, Sudan and Chad," referring to the injury of an aviation officer.

It added in a statement on its Facebook page that the bombing caused the injury of an employee at the airport, as well as damage to some airport facilities.

The statement did not give details of the stoppage of traffic at the airport, which is referred to all flights with the repeated targeting of the only civil airport Mitiga international Tripoli.

For his part, an official source in the municipal council in Misrata to suspend the flights for a short period before re-resumption.

The source told Agence France-Presse, "As a result of the bombing, two planes lying on the ground of the airport were injured by shrapnel, which required a security check of the airport and aircraft."

Hifter's forces made no comment on the shelling through their media platforms.

Misrata International Airport is the only one operating in western Libya, with Mitiga International Airport being closed for the second month following a missile attack on September 1, injuring civilians and injuring a passenger plane and runway.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Mission in Libya, Ghassan Salameh, has on several occasions expressed the Mission's condemnation of the repeated strikes on Mitiga and Misrata airport, stressing that their continued targeting amounts to a "war crime".

The Hifter attack on Tripoli aborted efforts by the United Nations to hold a conference of dialogue between the Libyans.

The world body is currently seeking an international conference of the parties concerned in Libya to discuss ways to reach a political solution to the conflict.