France probes newspaper over reports of troops in Libya

The French government has opened an official investigation into Le Monde after the newspaper reported that French special forces were operating in Libya against fighters loyal to the Islamic State group.

Le Monde said on Wednesday that special forces and members of the DGSE external security service were present in Libya for "clandestine operations" against IS.

It also claimed that an air strike in November that killed the top IS leader in the country, Abu Nabil, was "initiated by Paris".

French officials said the government had launched a probe into the leak.

Le Monde's claims comes after various reports on Tuesday that a French force had arrived at an air base in Benghazi hours after the city was 'liberated' from militants by Libyan forces loyal to the Tobruk government.

The reports referred to the troops variously as French "mercenaries", "commandos" and "special forces".

The French government has not confirmed the reports.

A source close to the French defence minister told the AFP news agency that the investigation into Le Monde "should establish if details covered by defence secrecy rules were revealed in this article".

"When secret operations are taking place, the goal is to ensure they are not revealed for the security of the men and the operations," said the source. 

A violation of defence secrecy carries a penalty of up to three years in prison and a $50,000 fine.

France and other Western countries have agreed that military action is needed to dislodge IS in Libya, which has exploited the chaos caused by the overthrow of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011. 

But it wants a national unity government in place to request the assistance before making a formal intervention.