Italian radar site ‘ItaMilRadar’, specialised in monitoring military aircrafts, revealed that it tracked a USAF Boeing RC-135U. The aircraft was undertaking a surveillance mission off western Libya, last week.
It added that the same aircraft was making a similar mission on Tuesday, across the Libyan coast.
“The USAF Boeing RC-135U left this morning from Souda bay, AB southbound at 07:21 CEST transmitting a fake hex-code (89FF8C),” it stated.
The website noted that the RC-135U made its surveillance mission off Benghazi, and over the Gulf of Sirte, always within international airspace. ItaMilRadar pointed out that the aircraft made a passage off Tripoli, before returning to make its mission in eastern Libya.
On 10 September, the Italian website detected a Turkish transport jet that took off from Gaziantep in southern Turkey, landing in Misrata. It identified the aircraft as Lockheed C-130B (61-0963). It is believed to have been carrying Syrian mercenaries to the North African state. Gaziantep has been used as a transit location, and a training camp for Syrian militants, by Ankara.