Africa

Home page

Africa

Libya urges Malta to send back jets

25 February 2011 04:31 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Malta has failed to reply to the Libyan demand for the return of two fighter jets which landed at Luqa airport as Libyan pilots defected after refusing to bomb civilians, APA reports quoting Press TV.

Two Libyan single-seater Mirage F1 fighter jets landed in Malta Monday with pilots claiming to have escaped the country after being asked by embattled Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi’s regime to bomb pro-democracy protesters in Benghazi.

Libyan security forces have reportedly killed some 1,000 people during the pro-democracy demonstrations against the authoritarian reign of the 68-year-old leader.

The pilots, who claimed to be high-ranking colonels from the Okba bin Nafe base close to Tripoli, requested political asylum, and the government is considering their requests, a Maltese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday.

The pair said they defected after receiving orders to bomb protesters in the opposition stronghold of Benghazi, Libya’s second biggest city and the locus of revolts since February 15, Times of Malta reported.

Earlier this week another fighter pilot disobeyed orders to bomb Benghazi and ditched his plane after he and his co-pilot ejected, a report said.

The island of Malta is the closest European nation to Libya, separated by just 350 kilometers (210 miles).

Meanwhile, two Irish Air Corps planes deployed to evacuate Irish citizens from revolution-hit Libya have landed in Valletta airport, in Malta, after it was forced out of Tripoli without any passengers.