Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu issued a statement on Sunday and announced that 6 Turkish citizens were detained by Haftar’s forces and threatened retaliation unless they were released.

A few hours after this statement, Khalifa Haftar’s army announced that they downed a Bayraktar-type UAV in the Tripoli airport.

The statement said, “Our planes targeted a Bayraktar type unmanned aerial vehicle during takeoff and destroyed it on the military runway.” The Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a new statement on Monday and announced that the detained Turkish citizens were released.

The developments came after Haftar declared Turkey an enemy and issued a “hit” against Turkish interests.

The Turkish state militarily and politically supports the National Unity Government, made up of Tripoli-based Islamist groups.

Haftar issued a statement through his spokesperson Ahmet el Mesmari and said the Libyan air field was closed for Turkish aircrafts.

Haftar announced that he ordered units under his command to attack Turkish vessels and sites in the region.

Haftar said Turkey has been supporting the Libyan central government forces alongside Qatar and added that these forces also occupied part of Libya’s territory.

The Libyan general said ships approaching harbors and planes wanting to land in Tripoli coming from Turkey will be considered enemies and Turkish citizens living in Libya would be arrested.

The Haftar front said Turkey is participating in the battle of Tripoli directly, in other words, participated in this war with their soldiers, ships and planes. According to Haftar, Turkey sends ammunition to the National Unity Government forces over the Mediterranean in particular.

Erdogan had recently said they provided arms to the Tripoli-based government “due to a military agreement between Ankara and Tripoli”, and going a step further, said Turkey’s military support to Tripoli was helping restore the balance against Haftar’s forces.