Tunisia detains warplane, pilot of Libyan rebels

A warplane belonging to eastern Libyan forces fighting the internationally recognized Tripoli government made an emergency landing in Tunisia on Monday. The pilot was promptly detained.

Negotiations with Tunisian authorities to secure the release of the pilot were under way, the foreign ministry of the rebel forces said.

The plane landed on a road in the southern Tunisian town of Beni Khadash, Tunisia’s state news agency TAP said.

Tunisia’s defense ministry said the pilot informed the authorities that he was forced to make the landing after his plane was damaged.

Tunisia’s air force scrambled jets to intercept the L-39 but it landed first, a defense ministry statement said.

Witnesses said the plane touched down on a road and was surrounded by civilian vehicles that stopped to watch.

Libya has been splintered by violent turmoil since the 2011 fall of Muammar Gaddafi.

The eastern Libyan National Army under Khalifa Haftar is trying to take Tripoli from forces allied to the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), but the LNA offensive has bogged down on the capital’s outskirts.