Libyan Jet Crashes Near Parliament, Three Dead

Latest reports say a Libyan military jet has crashed in the eastern city of Tobruk, causing a huge fire and killing at least three people.

According to BBC report, the jet hit a block of flats near the new parliamentary building after developing a “technical fault”, a security official said.
It was gathered that the jet was controlled by forces loyal to ex-General Khalifa Haftar who have been battling Islamist militias.

The Islamist-linked Libya Dawn group seized the capital, Tripoli, last week.
Parliament had earlier relocated to Tobruk, more than 1,000km (620 miles) away, because of the deteriorating security situation in Tripoli.
Witnesses said the jet was flying at a low altitude and smoke was billowing out of its engine before it crashed into an apartment block and burst into flames, the AFP news agency reports.
It came down on Tuesday around 1km (0.6 miles) from the seat of parliament, killing at least two residents and a co-pilot, Reuters news agency reports.
The dead included a child, but the co-pilot survived, an unnamed security official is quoted by AFP as saying.

Libya has been hit by instability since an array of militia groups, backed by Nato air strikes, overthrew long-serving ruler Col Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
The militia groups, many of whom are allied to rival politicians, have been fighting for power among themselves.

File photo

Meanwhile, U.S. officials had warned that Islamic militant in Libya have stolen nearly a dozen commercial planes which could be used to carry out 9/11-style terrorist attacks in the region.

Eleven commercial jets operated by two state-owned airlines went missing last month, after militant group Libyan Dawn overtook the international airport in the capital city of Tripoli.

In the past two weeks, the U.S. government has been issuing warnings about the deteriorating state in Libya, drawing attention to the fact that the planes could be used in attacks to mark the anniversary of 9/11 later this month.

‘There are a number of commercial airliners in Libya that are missing,’ one official told the Free-Beacon. ‘We found out on September 11 what can happen with hijacked planes.’

Tripoli International Airport was being run by two anti-Islamist militias and had been closed since mid-July when it was taken over at the end of August by the group Libyan Dawn.