General Haftar’s liberation forces shot down a French Mirage war jet over Libya. The pilot of a fighter jet shot down south of Tripoli by the Libyan National Army is allegedly a Portuguese fighting in Libya as a “NATO mercenary”.
Photos posted on social media show a bloodied man in military-style clothes without any distinctive badges surrounded by forces said to be loyal to Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar of the Libyan National Army (LNA).
Reports say the captured pilot was flying a French-designed Dassault Mirage F1 jet.
Libyan forces had 38 of the jets since the late 1970’s, and France agreed to modernize the remaining fleet in 2012 after the NATO-backed war assassinated Colonel Muammar Ghaddafi and threw the country into civil war chaos.
The pilot was allegedly captured after his jet was shot down over the Wadi al-Hira area, located south of the Libyan capital of Tripoli. Earlier, there were conflicting reports about his nationality, with some media outlets claiming he was an Italian.
Footage also surfaced on social media showing the pilot giving his alleged name and nationality during questioning. He appeared to claim that his name was “Jimmy Reiss,” adding that the Jewish descendant was 29-years-old and “from Portugal.
Portuguese MP’s in the European Parliament have already reacted to the reports. Ana Maria Gomes, an MEP from the Socialist Party, retweeted some of the photos while asking “which forces the Portuguese man is serving?”
RT. com / ABC Flash Point News 2019.
