The United States military forces had denied taking part, on Thursday, in a raid operation over an al-Qaeda region in the Libyan city of Ubari, further contradicting a statement released by a Libyan official.
According to Reuters news reports, presidency council of the Tripoli-based government of national accord of Libya head Fayez al-Sarraj spokesperson has, in an official statement released late on Wednesday, said a site consisting various numbers of al-Qaeda members in the Libyan city of Ubari was “raided” by the joint Libyan-US forces.
In the statement, Sarraj’s spokesperson Mohamed El Sallak said, “This joint work between the Presidency Council of the Government of National Accord and the US Government coincided with the meeting of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Foreign Minister Mohamed Sayala at the Global Coalition to Defeat Islamic State meeting last week.”
But the US Africa command which is fully responsible for American troops in the region said although, the US steps up supports what it is described as a counterterrorism effort of the United Nations-recognized Libyan government, the US military forces were not at all involved in the raid process.
The US Africa command, in a statement, said: “U.S. Africa Command was not involved in the reported raid of an al-Qaeda site in Ubari, Libya, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2019.”
It added saying that the “US Africa Command has not conducted any air strikes in Libya in 2019”.