A warplane belonging to eastern warlord Khalifa Haftar's forces has shot down an unmanned Italian plane in Tarhuna, 65 km southeast of Tripoli, which it mistook for a Turkish drone, the Libyan Address Journal website reported on Wednesday.
The Turkish drone had taken off from Misrata's civilian airport, the website, which is close to Haftar, cited "a military source" as saying.
The report came as Defence General Staff confirmed that an unmanned Italian plane had crashed in Libya.
The pilot of the Predator drone had received an alarm signal that a fire had broken out aboard the aircraft before losing contact with the aircraft, well placed sources told Adnkronos.
