Libya attack: airstrike on Tripoli migrant detention centre leaves at least 40 dead

[muriel_volestrangler]

An airstrike has hit a detention centre for mainly African migrants in a suburb of the Libyan capital of Tripoli, killing at least 40 people and wounding 80, a health official said.

It is the highest publicly reported toll of an airstrike or shelling since eastern forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive three months ago with ground troops and aircraft to take the capital held by the internationally recognised government.
...
The Tripoli-based government said in a statement that dozens of people had been killed and wounded in an airstrike blamed on the “war criminal Khalifa Haftar.” A spokesman for Haftar forces did not immediately answer phone calls and messages seeking comment.
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An LNA official denied his force had hit the detention centre, saying militias allied to Tripoli had shelled it after a precision airstrike by the LNA on a camp.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/03/air-strike-kill-libya-tripoli-migrant-detention-centre

Seems far more likely it was Haftar - "I'm launching precision air strikes, while the defenders are shelling a camp instead of the aircraft" doesn't cut it as an explanation.

[Eugene]

1. New Guardian headline at link: Libya detention centre attack is possible war crime, says UN envoy

Libya detention centre attack is possible war crime, says UN envoy

Warlord Khalifa Haftar blamed for airstrikes in which at least 44 people are killed

Patrick Wintour
Wed 3 Jul 2019 12.38 BST First published on Wed 3 Jul 2019 04.20 BST

At least 44 people, and possibly many more, have been killed in the bombing of a detention centre south of Tripoli condemned by the UN Libya envoy as a possible war crime.

Ghassan Salamé said the attack, apparently carried out by forces loyal to the warlord Khalifa Haftar, “clearly could constitute a war crime, as it killed by surprise innocent people whose dire conditions forced them to be in that shelter”.

At least 130 people were injured in the attack on the Tajoura detention centre, which the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) said had been hit by two airstrikes.

Most of the dead will be people held in detention after attempting to reach Europe on clandestine sea crossings from Libya.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/03/air-strike-kill-libya-tripoli-migrant-detention-centre