An unidentified warplane killed 10 militants near the southern Libyan city of Ghat, a local military source told Xinhua later on Thursday.

"An unidentified airstrike targeted a convoy of five armed vehicles in the town of Awenat in Ghat, near the Algerian border," the source said.

Local media published images of people inside armed vehicles which are completely burnt in a desert area near Ghat.

"Military forces moved towards the scene. We found five cars completely destroyed in an uninhabited desert area, and counted the remains of 10 burned bodies, likely to be of al-Qaida terrorists," the source added.

The Libyan air force was not responsible for the raid, the source said, stressing that the airstrike is foreign and was likely carried out by a U.S. drone.

The U.S. military has not claimed responsibility for the airstrike so far.