TRIPOLI, July 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — At least 40 migrants were killed and more than 80 wounded in an air strike on their detention centre in a suburb of the Libyan capital Tripoli, an emergency services spokesman said.
“This is a preliminary assessment and the toll could rise,” said spokesman Osama Ali.
He said 120 migrants were detained in the hangar, which was directly hit by the strike.
The majority of those killed are reported to be African migrants.
In recent years, Libya has been a key springboard for migrants seeking to travel to Europe.
The airstrike targeting the detention centre in Tripoli’s Tajoura neighbourhood also wounded 80 migrants, said Malek Merset, a spokesperson for the health ministry said.
Merset posted photos of migrants who were being taken in ambulances to hospitals.
In a statement, the UN-supported government blamed the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Khalifa Hifter, for the airstrike.
The LNA launched an offensive against the weak Tripoli-based government in April. Hifter’s forces control much of the country’s east and south but were dealt a significant blow last week when militias allied with the Tripoli government reclaimed the strategic town of Gharyan, about 100 kilometres from the capital.
Gharyan had been a key supply route for the LNA forces.
The LNA has been fighting forces loyal to the country’s internationally recognised government in the area where the strike happened.
LNA had announced on Monday that it would start heavy air strikes on targets in Tripoli after “traditional means” of war had been exhausted.
But a spokesperson for the LNA denied that its forces had hit the detention centre.
The fighting for Tripoli has threatened to plunge Libya into another bout of violence on the scale of the 2011 conflict that ousted longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi and led to his death.
Thousands of migrants are detained in Libya after being apprehended by local forces funded by the European Union and are now caught up in the armed conflict.
The centres have limited food and other supplies, and international agencies have called for speeding up resettlement of the migrants. — NNN-AGENCIES