The cause of the June 30 attack on Al-Kharruba airbase, 150km southwest of Benghazi, is not yet clear. However, the airstrike caused no casualties.
Libyan army chief of staff Mohamad al-Haddad denied the Tripoli government was involved in the raid.
Security forces outside the parliament building in Tobruk - Libya. Photo: Reuters
According to the Addresslibya news website (Libya), Mr. al-Haddad said: "Our planes did not target any targets in the East. Information about the incident is intended to provoke a new war between Libyan brothers and drag Libya into the regional conflict."
According to Al-Massar TV (Libya), the Libyan Ministry of Defense said: "We are surprised by this information. We respect the ceasefire signed in October 2020."
The agency referred to the ceasefire agreement with General Khalifa Haftar to end the 2019-2020 offensive on the Libyan capital.
Gunmen from the Wagner private military group, along with others from Chad, Sudan, Niger and Syria, have helped Mr Haftar in the battle for control of Tripoli.
Wagner forces remain active in eastern and southern Libya, although some have left to fight in Mali or Ukraine.
The North African country remains divided between a Tripoli-based interim government in the west and another administration in the east led by Mr Haftar.
In a related development, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the future of contracts signed between African countries and Wagner forces is a matter for the governments that signed the agreements.
Speaking at a press conference on June 30, Lavrov said Wagner had been working in the Central African Republic (CAR) and other countries on the basis of contracts signed directly with the relevant governments. He also said the Russian Defense Ministry has long had “several hundred” military advisers working in CAR.
The statement comes after Wagner's brief uprising in Russia last weekend led to speculation about the status of Wagner agents in CAR and elsewhere in Africa, and the extent of Moscow's interference in Wagner's activities on the continent.
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