By Libya Herald reporters.
Tripoli, 2 June 2016:
A Mig from Misrata crashed today. IS terrorists in Sirte claimed they had shot it . . .[restrict]down. Misrata said the aircraft had suffered mechanical failure and that the pilot had bailed out safely.
Claim and counterclaim have charactised the recent fighting. IS also insisted that the same warplane had, in error, earlier bombed Misratan positions to the west of Sirte. The Misratans said five missions had been flown against IS but it was not clear if they were all by the same aircraft.
What is clear is that today has seen stiff fighting with the thrust of the Misratan attack shifting from the west to the south of the town with an advance towards Gardabya airport and military airbase. IS denied reports that they had abandoned the position.
There were reports that the Misratans had been shelling the centre of Sirte for the first time. It However, it also appears that an IS counterattack retook lost ground near the Gulf Power station from which the terrorists were driven out on Sunday. This assault began with another of the devastating truck bombs (SVBIED – Suicide vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Device). IS posted a picture of the driver, naming him as Abu Musab Al-Kini from Kenya.
The terrorists claimed that 12 armoured vehicles were destroyed and 48 killed, which if true would have made this suicide attack worse than the May 18 truck bomb which killed 32 fighters. Misrata insisted that today’s SVBIED killed just two soldiers and injured a dozen.
Yesterday the Misratans said they had destroyed another truck bomb before it could reach reach its target. [/restrict]
