PARIS: France said Wednesday its missiles had been found at a Libyan base used by forces loyal to strongman Khalifa Haftar, in an embarrassing admission that raises fresh questions about its role in the conflict.
Confirming a report in the New York Times, a defence ministry statement said the US-made Javelin missiles discovered in June at a camp south of Tripoli had been purchased by France.
But it denied supplying them to Haftar in breach of a UN arms embargo, saying French forces operating in the war-torn country had lost track of them after they were judged to be defective.
The anti-tank missiles, worth $170,000 each, were seized when forces loyal to the UN-recognised government in Tripoli overran the pro-Haftar base in Gharyan, 100km south of Tripoli.
Three of them were shown to journalists, including AFP reporters, on June 29 alongside Chinese-made shells bearing the markings of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The French ministry statement did not explain how the missiles were lost and the find is likely to boost suspicions that Paris is backing Haftar on the ground.
“These weapons were for the protection of forces undertaking intelligence and counter-terror missions,” the French statement said.
Claudia Gazzini, senior Libya analyst at the International Crisis Group, an NGO, said the town of Gharyan had in the past housed facilities for obsolete weapons.
But there were unanswered questions about whether French troops were present when the base was overrun, she said.
Haftar’s opponents have branded him a warlord and dictator-in-the-making, but the military strongman is backed by some Western and many regional countries as a bulwark against Islamist groups.
On April 4, he launched an offensive on the Libyan capital seeking to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj.
The fighting has claimed at least 1,000 lives and displaced tens of thousands of people. Jalel Harchaoui, an expert on Libya at the Clingendael Institute, a Netherlands-based think-tank, recalled the deaths of three French forces who were working alongside Haftar’s troops in 2016. – AFP
