An airstrike carried out by an as-yet-unidentified warplane against the Libyan oasis town of Hun has killed at least nine civilians today, including a number of children. Local medical officials reported at least 20 people were wounded in the incident.
Hun is in territory near forces loyal to both the US-backed “unity government” and the UN-backed Tobruk parliament, but like most of Libya has a strong sense of local independence and isn’t directly aligned with either.
Forces from the Tobruk parliament claimed warplanes from the unity government, flying out of Misrata, carried out the attack, but the unity officials denied this, saying their planes didn’t stray from their usual reconnaissance operations along the coast.
The coast is where the vast majority of Libya’s population lives, and it is rare for either side to get in any serious fighting this deep into the country. Both sides have fairly limited air forces, and it isn’t entirely clear that either could reliably carry out operations this far inland.
Its not that remote.
So, yes, most of the population and cities are along the coast. During WWII, operations did stay mostly around the coast, except when Rommel regularly fooled the crack British generals by sweeping around their flank through the desert …. over and over and over.
Still, he didn’t go this far south. But, it wasn’t unusual for commando teams to go through this part of the country. Most of the towns and other places on the map are watering holes. Its remote, but a few guys with a couple of jeeps can ‘conduct operations’ in the area. And for a jet on a bombing run, its probably only a half-hour flight from Tripoli and wouldn’t require re-fueling.
US Special forces are spotting for American airstrikes. If American planes are flying in the area, you can bet that they know what other planes are flying in the area and where they took off from and where they landed. An AWACS flying out of an Italian air-base could easily keep an eye on things.
So, if the western media says its unknown who they are, that just means the Americans aren’t saying. Which means if I had to place a bet, I’d place in on the side the Americans are supporting.