On Sunday, the official spokesman for the Libyan National Army (LNA), Major General Ahmed Al-Mismari, announced that a squadron of bomber aircrafts, including MiG-23 aircrafts and BN bombers, has been successfully repaired and is now ready for use.
In a statement, Al-Mismari said that a number of technicians from the Libyan Air Force have managed to complete the maintenance works for those bomber jets and made them ready to be used for combat missions.
Notably, the LNA General Command said on Wednesday that they killed the leader of the Islamic State in North Africa during a raid in the southern desert city of Sebha, earlier this month.
Al-Mismari said that Abu Moaz al-Iraqi was among nine extremists killed during the raid but was only identified afterwards.
IS in Libya was formed by al-Qaeda militants who took advantage of the chaos after the 2011 uprising against Muammar Qaddafi to seize territory and launch attacks.
The group took control of the central coastal city of Sirte in early 2015 and established a presence in the vast southern desert as well as active affiliates or cells in major cities.
However, it was driven out from Sirte in late 2016 and its influence since then has been limited to occasional attacks, including one on the National Oil Corporation’s headquarters in 2018 and another at the foreign ministry in 2019, both in Tripoli.
Mismari said Abu Moaz al-Iraqi, also known as Abu Abdullah al-Iraqi, had entered Libya in 2014 and became the group’s leader in 2015 when his predecessor was killed.