Renascent Libyan Air Force strikes smuggler camps near the border with Chad and Sudan

According to the Libyan Herald, on Dec. 18,  Libyan airforce jets hit a camp possibly used by suspected smugglers located close to the border with Chad and Sudan, not far from Kufra.

The strike took place two days after the National Congress had passed a resolution to declare the temporary closure of the borders with Niger, Chad, Sudan and Algeria would be temporarily closed to improve security in the southern Libya.

The remote south has become a Libyan government’s concern because of illegal traffic, smuggling and mass jail breakouts.

Even if the type of aircraft used to perform the air-to-surface activity in unknown, the Free Libyan Air Force (FLAF) planes most frequently appearing in updatesposted on open Facebook groups/pages are the Mig-21 and Mig-23 bombers.

Image credit: klna.libya

Noteworthy, a slightly different kind of FLAF roundel seems to have been applied to Libyan planes as the image posted above (taken on a FB page) shows.

Compare the roundel with the one in the photo below on the Mirage F1s returning home after defecting to Malta at the beginning of the uprising.

H/T to Marguerite Dehler for the heads-up

Image credit: Brendon Attard

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About David Cenciotti

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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.