Libya's eastern commander Khalifa Haftar speaks to the media after submitting his candidacy papers for the presidential elections at the office of the High National Elections Commission, in Benghazi, Libya, on November 16, 2021. File Photo / Reuters
Tripoli: Libya's unity government has carried out a prisoner exchange with rival eastern forces, releasing a pilot captured during strongman Khalifa Haftar's 2019 assault on Tripoli, local media reported on Monday.
According to the reports and images on social media, pilot Amer al-Orfi al-Gajam was exchanged for 15 prisoners held by Haftar's forces, which back a rival government and control much of eastern and southern Libya.
The exchange took place in a Haftar-controlled part of the Jufra region, near a ceasefire line between eastern and western forces.
Images on social media appeared to show Gajam, a high-ranking member of Haftar's forces, with a long beard and dressed in a traditional Libyan tunic and vest.
The 2011 revolt that toppled Moamer Kadhafi's regime left a power vacuum that was filled by an array of armed groups.
Haftar's east-based forces, the self-styled Libyan National Army, were among the most powerful groups that emerged in the aftermath.
In 2019, Haftar seized large parts of the south and launched an assault on Tripoli.
In December that year, government forces said they had shot down a Russian-made MiG-23 fighter jet some 45 kilometres (28 miles) west of the capital, capturing its pilot Gajam.
Haftar's forces later announced that they had lost a MiG-23 due to a "technical fault" and that the pilot had been captured.
They made no immediate statement on the reported prisoner exchange.
