History
Prior to June 1970, the United States Air Force (USAF) used the facility, then known as Wheelus Air Base.
Subsequently, the facility was known as Okba Ben Nafi Air Base, a Libyan People's Air Force (LPAF) installation. In 1986, the base was a primary target of Operation El Dorado Canyon (see below), a US retaliatory strike against Libya for Libyan missile attacks on US aircraft over Libya's claimed territorial waters in the Mediterranean Sea and alleged Libyan involvement in alleged terrorist attacks on US servicemen in Europe.
Read more about this topic: Mitiga International Airport
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“It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.”
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