At least 40 killed in alleged airstrike at migrant detention center near Tripoli – reports

Some forty people have reportedly been killed and another 80 injured after a detention facility housing predominantly African migrants was hit in an alleged airstrike on Tuesday night, Reuters and AFP reported citing health officials. Gruesome images have surfaced on social media of the purported aftermath showing multiple bodies buried under rubble. Footage released by a local TV channel claims to show injured migrants being treated at a hospital. The suburb of Tajoura, where the detention center is located, is home to several militias backing the UN-sponsored Government of National Accord, embroiled in the long-running standoff with the Libyan National Army (LNA), controlling the eastern part of the country.

The Government of National Accord’s Presidential Council is blaming the LNA, ran by strongman Khalifa Haftar. In a statement on Wednesday, the council urged the UN to condemn the bombing and organize a fact-finding mission to the site while calling the incident “mass murder” and a possible war crime. The LNA, which on Monday said it would launch a new offensive on Tripoli, meanwhile denied responsibility for the alleged raid, pointing finger at Tripoli-allied militias. The LNA said that Tripoli-allied forces hit the center after the LNA carried a precision strike on the militias’ positions. The UN refugee agency UNHCR voiced concerns over the incident, stating that “civilians should never be a target.”

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