TRIPOLI: International condemnation mounted on Wednesday after more than 40 migrants were killed in an air strike on a detention centre in Libya that the UN-recognised government blamed on rival strongman Khalifa Haftar.
The UN envoy to the North African nation said the raid was a possible war crime, while the European Union denounced the "horrific" attack. Bodies were strewn on the floor of the hangar in a Tripoli suburb, mixed with the belongings and blood-soaked clothes of migrants, an AFP photographer said.
Tuesday night’s strike left a hole around three metres in diameter at the centre of the hangar, surrounded by debris ripped from the metal structure by the force of the blast. At least 44 people were killed and more than 130 severely injured, the UN said.
"This attack clearly could constitute a war crime, as it killed by surprise innocent people whose dire conditions forced them to be in that shelter," UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame said. He called for the international community to punish those who ordered, carried out and provided arms for the strike, noting it was the second time the facility has been attacked.
"The absurdity of this ongoing war today has led this odious bloody carnage to its most hideous and most tragic consequences," Salame said in a statement. An emergency services spokesman Osama Ali told AFP 120 migrants were detained in the hangar which was directly hit by the strike.
Rescuers were searching for survivors under the rubble, while dozens of ambulances rushed to the scene. The head of the centre, Noureddine al-Grifi, said others had been wounded in a neighbouring hangar that was also damaged by the strike.
The five hangars in Tajoura held around 600 migrants and refugees, he said. In a statement, the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) based in Tripoli denounced the attack as a "heinous crime" and blamed it on the "war criminal Khalifa Haftar".
Turkey, which backs the GNA, called for an international probe into what it called a "crime against humanity". Haftar, who controls much of eastern and southern Libya, in early April launched an offensive to take the capital.
The GNA accused pro-Haftar forces of having carried out a "premeditated" and "precise" attack on the migrant centre. No-one has so far claimed responsibility, but pro-Haftar media reported Tuesday night a "series of air raids" in Tripoli and Tajoura.
The suburb of Tajoura, which has several military sites belonging to pro-GNA armed groups, is regularly targeted in air raids by Haftar’s forces. "Migrants and refugees must NOT be detained; civilians must NOT be a target; Libya is NOT a safe place of return" for migrants and refugees, the head of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, said in a tweet.
