WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A US Air Force veteran accused of working as a mercenary in Libya after six weeks of detention was released in a mysterious episode that highlights the intertwined nature of the country's civil war, officials said Tuesday.
Jamie Sponogel, a 31-year-old Florida native, was driving an airplane near the Libyan capital Tripoli on May 7 when his plane crashed, according to officials and individuals familiar with the incident who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Libyan national army said it had shot down the plane, which it said was a Mirage F-1 fighter jet driven by a man now known by the Washington Post as Sponogl, where it had launched air strikes on the Libyan National Army forces in the region. The newspaper blocked the publication of Sponogall's arrest at the request of US officials who were working to secure his release.
The clear involvement of a US military commander in a continuing battle in Tripoli between the National Liberal Army and militias loyal to the UN-backed National Reconciliation Government illustrates the complexity of a long-running conflict that emerged as a major world war involving weapons and fencing on charges of using mercenaries, the Washington Post said.
He also draws attention to the shift in US policy towards Libya. While senior officials in the Trump administration made limited time for Libya, the president seemed to dislike the long-standing support of the National Reconciliation Government in Tripoli when he publicly praised Khalifa Hafer, the powerful man who heads Libya's national army.
"We are always happy to see the Americans being held abroad returning home to their friends and families," Ambassador Robert O'Brien, President Trump's envoy for hostage affairs, said in a telephone interview, adding: "We appreciate his kidnappers' decision to release him. the case ".
Officials said Sponogel was being flown to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. Neither the Libyan National
Spoogel, who has not been identified as an American before, became an air force recruiter in 2006 and worked as a mechanic, Air Force officials said. After leaving the actual service in 2013 he worked in the Florida National Guard until 2016 or 2017. His last active duty job was an aerospace technician, and his last duty station was the MacDill Air Force base in Tampa.
He was not a pilot in the air force, but he got a pilot's license after his military service. A Western official familiar with Libya said foreign trainers had worked for a long time at the Libyan air academy based in Misurata.
How did the story begin?
The Libyan National Army, announced at the beginning of May, that his forces had shot down a military aircraft to the Government of Tripoli, and arrested the leader, "foreign mercenary" south of the capital. The media unit posted pictures of the pilot, showing blood on his face as he received medical treatment sitting on a chair. In another, the leader of the Libyan National Army, Abdel Salam al-Hassi, stands behind him.
The commander of the western military operations group, Major General Abdul Salam al-Hassi, described the foreign pilot whose plane was shot down by the army in Al-Hira as a "mercenary" but vowed to maintain his security and provide the necessary treatment. Al-Hassi accused the Tripoli government of hiring the pilot to "kill the Libyans with their money," describing it as "a government of shame, shame and mercenaries."
A video clip showed on social networking sites, a source from the Libyan National Army confirmed his health, the pilot appeared to be bent, wearing a blood-soaked cotton shirt and khaki jacket, and being interrogated in English. When asked about his name, he apparently said he was Jimmy Reese, but his response was not clear. He said he was 29 years old and that he was "from Portugal". "He asked me to destroy roads and bridges," he said when asked what he was doing in Libya. He responded to the question of the person who sent him saying that he came under a civil contract with a person named Hadi, but did not know his full name.
Residents of Gharyan, about 80 km (60 miles) south of Tripoli, said that when they heard the sound of the plane flying at low altitude, the ground-based antipersonnel was intercepted. Residents said there was an explosion when she was injured. "The plane was shot down in al-Hira town (10 kilometers from Gharyan) and I saw the Libyan National Army forces arrest the pilot," a resident of Gharyan told Reuters.
Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva, the first skeptic of the pilot's nationality and his relationship with the Portuguese army, was quoted by the Lusa news agency reporter in Costa Rica's capital, San Jose, as saying that the Portuguese Defense Ministry, Armed in his country "is not aware of the presence of a Portuguese pilot involved in military operations of any kind and with any party in Libya," as he put it.
The Libyan army said that the aircraft belonging to the militias dropped in the area of Al-Hira south of Tripoli, a Mirage was changed to units of the "National Army", in the area of Wadi Al-Hira. The Libyan news agency confirmed that the plane dropped in the axis of the Valley of Al-Hira, the Mirage "F-1", and that the commander holds Portuguese nationality, and published pictures.
On April 4, Libya's military commander, Marshal Khalifa Khalaf, launched the "Delaware Al Karama" operation, which aims to rid Tripoli of militia control. In 2014, Hafar led the Libyan national army to take control of the eastern city of Benghazi after three years of fighting, and this year took control of the south after the expulsion of militants.Army nor the National Accord Government made an immediate comment.
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