The Chadian opposition Republican Party has accused "criminal forces of Khalifa Haftar" of ordering a hit on their leader Gorbal Jadi Nakour and his bodyguard.

The party said that the assassination was carried out on April 18 by Haftar's forces, adding that an investigation had been opened to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The leader of the party was a close friend to Haftar as many of the party's fighters had taken part in the the war in Libya since the beginning of Haftar's military operations in Benghazi in May 2014, knowing that they are still participating in Haftar's offensive on Tripoli.

Haftar has been using thousands of African mercenaries, mainly from Chad and Sudan, to fight alongside his forces.

Meanwhile, Libyan Army forces killed scores of mercenaries in airstrikes on and clashes against Haftar's forces, in addition to capturing many of them, including commanders tasked with recruiting mercenaries; the last of whom was a Chadian leader in western Sirte.

"The commander was gathering Chadian mercenaries to recruit them for fighting for Haftar's forces after transferring them to Jufra." Commander of security and protection force of Sirte-Jufra liberation room, Abdelhamid Abu Zayan, who added that preliminary investigations showed that the recruiter was offering 3000 dinars a week for mercenaries to fight for Haftar's forces.