After a fight with a Chadian group, Haftar's forces say they lost two helicopters in the south of the country

The forces of retired Libyan Major General Khalifa Haftar said that two of their soldiers were killed when two helicopters collided during a military operation on Sunday, after days of fighting with a rebel group from Chad that was its former ally.

It said - in a statement - that the two planes collided and fell during a military operation south of Benina Air Base, but did not say whether they were participating in the fighting.

Brigadier General Miloud Al-Zawi, spokesman for the special forces of Haftar's forces, told AFP that the collision of the two planes caused the death of Brigadier General Bouzid Al-Barasi and technician Milad Al-Asaibi, while the crew of the second plane survived.

Al-Zawi added that the accident occurred "when the two planes were carrying out a military mission in the town of Mesous, which is located about 130 kilometers southeast of Benghazi," without giving further details about the nature of the mission.

Haftar's forces stationed in the east have been fighting - since last week - battles with the "Change and Accord Front in Chad" (FACT) in southern Libya near the Chadian border.

Researchers say that the Chadian group was based in Libya, and that it fought alongside forces loyal to retired Major General Haftar during the Libyan civil war and received heavy weapons from him.

Last April, the front advanced into northern Chad and fought the army there.

Many Chadian armed rebel groups are stationed in Libya and Sudan or in the border areas between Chad and these two countries, including the Chadian Front for Change and Accord, which launched on April 11 an attack on the capital, N'Djamena, during which former Chadian President Idriss Deby was killed 3 decades later. He spent it with power.

Following the death of his father, General Mohamed Deby announced in April the formation of a transitional military council headed by him and proclaimed himself President of the Republic, pledging to hold "free and democratic" elections at the end of an 18-month transitional period that can be extended.

Major military operations in the Libyan war have stopped since the end of the Haftar forces’ offensive last year, when the two warring parties agreed to a ceasefire, the formation of an interim unity government, and the holding of elections, despite the continued presence of mercenaries on both sides.