The US embassy has denied a report in another section of the media that US  military forces engaged a missile in the vicinity of Malta on June 12.

"The U.S. Embassy reiterates that on June 12th, US military forces operating in the region did not engage a Libyan missile.  The Embassy has no information on what may have caused the reported sounds of an explosion heard in the area of Dingli on that date," the Embassy said.

The government, Nato and the Libyan embassy have also denied a report in yesterday's It-Torca that a missile aimed at Malta had been fired from Libya and was intercepted before reaching the island.

Several people had on June 12 reported hearing the sound of an explosion near Dingli, but its source is still unknown.

Nato yesterday also dismissed the newspaper report.

“We do not talk about our military capability as we do not go into the operational details; however we have not seen any evidence of the use of longer-range ballistic weapons such as the Scud missiles,” a Nato spokesman told The Times.

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