Airstrikes in Libya: US Africa Command cover-up or another nation’s unclaimed attack?

Last week the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) denied carrying out an airstrike targeting al-Qaeda in southwest Libya despite the internationally recognized regime in Tripoli insisting they had involved their American colleagues in a joint attack.

The spokesperson for the chairman of the Presidential Council of Libya said on Wednesday that a site with a number of al-Qaeda militants in Ubari, southwestern Libya, was raided by joint U.S.-Libyan forces. According to The Libya Observer, “Mohammed El Sallak [of the Government of National Accord] declined to give further details but said the airstrike was conducted within the joint cooperation between the Presidential Council and the United States to fight terrorism. The airstrike coincided with the meeting of Foreign Minister Mohamed Sayala with his American counterpart Mike Pompeo at the Global Coalition To Defeat Daesh meeting last week.”