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Emergency workers recover bodies after an air strike at Tajoura detention centre, east of Tripoli. Photo: AFP

At least 44 killed, 130 wounded by air strike on migrant detention centre in Libya

  • Internationally recognised government in Tripoli blamed the strike on the ‘war criminal Khalifa Hifter’
  • Three months ago, Hifter launched an offensive with ground troops and aircraft to take the capital
Libya
An air strike late on Tuesday hit a detention centre for mainly African migrants in a suburb of the Libyan capital of Tripoli, killing at least 44 people and wounding more than 130, the UN mission to the war-torn country said.

It is the highest publicly reported toll of an air strike or shelling since eastern forces loyal to Khalifa Hifter three months ago launched an offensive with ground troops and aircraft to take the capital held by the internationally recognised government.

The conflict is part of chaos in the oil-and-gas-producing nation since the Nato-backed overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

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The air strike targeted the detention centre in Tripoli’s Tajoura neighbourhood. Health Ministry spokesman Malek Merset posted photos of migrants being taken in ambulances to hospitals. Footage circulating online and said to be from inside the migrant detention center showed blood and body parts mixed with rubble and migrants’ belongings.

The air strike hit a workshop housing weapons and vehicles and an adjacent hangar where around 150 migrants were being held, mostly Sudanese and Moroccans, according to two migrants who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Published photos showed African migrants undergoing surgery in a hospital after the strike. Others lay on beds, some covered in dust or with limbs bandaged.

Libya is a main departure point for migrants from Africa fleeing poverty and war and trying to reach Italy by boat, but many get picked up by the Libyan coastguard supported by the European Union, which wants to stop migration.

Thousands of migrants are held in government-run detention centres in western Libya in what human rights groups and the United Nations say are often inhuman conditions.

Emergency workers arrive on the scene. Photo: AFP

Tajoura, east of Tripoli’s centre, is home to several military camps of forces allied to Libya’s internationally recognised government, which have been targeted by air strikes for weeks.

On Monday, Hifter’s Libyan National Army (LNA), which is allied to a parallel government, said it would start heavy air strikes on targets in Tripoli after “traditional means” of war had been exhausted.

An LNA official denied his force had hit the detention centre, saying militias allied to Tripoli had shelled it after a precision air strike by the LNA on a camp.

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The LNA air campaign has failed to take Tripoli in three months of fighting, and last week LNA lost its main forward base in Gharyan, which was taken back by Tripoli forces last week.

Both sides enjoy military support from regional powers. The LNA for years has been supplied by the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, while Turkey recently shipped arms to Tripoli to stop Hifter’s assault, diplomats say.

The conflict threatens to allow Islamist militants to fill a security void, disrupt oil supplies, boost migration across the Mediterranean to Europe, and scupper UN plans for an election to end rivalries between parallel administrations in east and west.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Air strike on migrant centre kills dozens
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