Cypriot police said on Wednesday that U.S. federal investigators examined a light aircraft, indicating continued international interest in a plane that UN experts believe was purchased by an entity two years ago to conduct operations in the Libyan war. The aircraft, believed by the UN to have been modified to carry weapons, has been sitting in a hangar at an airport in Cyprus since 2019.
In response to inquiries sent by Reuters regarding the aircraft, the Cypriot Ministry of Transport provided identification codes that match one of three planes mentioned in a UN report issued in March 2021 by independent sanctions monitors concerning the conflict in Libya. This report detailed allegations of a covert military operation orchestrated by Erik Prince, founder of the private security firm Blackwater at that time, to support Khalifa Haftar, the military commander in eastern Libya, in 2019. Prince has denied any allegations of participation in any stage of operations in Libya.
UN weapon inspectors stated that the proposal, codenamed Project Opus, had to be abandoned in June 2019 after Haftar was unconvinced by the helicopters purchased for the operation. Libya has seen violence between rival factions since the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi and brought foreign powers into the country. A ceasefire was agreed upon with UN support last year following the collapse of Haftar’s 14-month offensive on Tripoli.
In Cyprus, a police spokesperson reported that U.S. federal agents, working in collaboration with the UN, inspected the aircraft on Tuesday. The UN report from March 2021 noted that Cyprus initially informed the international organization that it had no record of the plane that landed there in July 2019. Two officials from the Ministry of Transport explained that this was due to incorrect identification codes provided by the UN. One official stated that the matter concerning the aircraft was later clarified in communications with the UN. A transport ministry official confirmed that the aircraft "is securely located at Paphos Airport" and has not left the island since its arrival in 2019.
