Cairo denies its warplanes are targeting Islamists in Libya

The spokesperson of the office of the Egyptian coup leader and President Abdul-Fattah Al-Sisi denied on Wednesday the news about Egyptian warplanes targeting Libyan Islamists in Benghazi, Anadolu news agency reported.

The news agency cited a statement reported by Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that said: “Ambassador Alaa Yousef, the spokesperson of the republic’s presidency, has denied mass media reports that Egyptian warplanes had stricken targets in Libya.”

Earlier, AP reported unnamed Egyptian officials as saying that Egyptian warplanes had launched strikes on Libyan targets. The officials said that the attack came as “part of an Egyptian-led operation against armed militias in Libya. Libyan ground forces are also taking part in this operation.”

The operation reportedly came at the request of the internationally backed Libyan government based in Tobruk, which is backed by the renegade retired Libyan Colonel Khalifa Haftar.

According to the Egyptian officials, an Egyptian warship in the Mediterranean was used as a control and command base. Meanwhile, they said that Haftar did not lead the operation and instead Egypt was cooperating directly with the new chief of staff Abdul-Razeq Al-Nazouri.

A commander of Haftar’s aerial forces, Saqr Al-Jarroushi, also denied the involvement of Egyptian warplanes in the latest Benghazi strikes. However, he reiterated that his forces did start an operation early on Wednesday against Islamists in the city.

Member of the Libyan parliament in Benghazi Tareq Al-Jarroushi confirmed that Egyptian warplanes had carried out strikes against Libyan targets in Benghazi. He said that Egypt supplied Haftar’s army with four warplanes led by Libyan pilots to bolsters its abilities.

In August, Libyan officials accused Egypt and the UAE of striking Libyan targets. Both countries initially denied the accusation, but it was later revealed that the attacks did, in fact, take place.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE both backed the Egyptian military coup that deposed the Muslim Brotherhood in July 2013 and have been staunch supporters of Egypt’s military regime ever since.