Air strike on migrant detention centre in Libya kills 44, more than 160 wounded An air strike that hit a detention centre for migrants in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, killing at least 44 people and wounding 160 others could constitute as a "war crime", according to the UN. It is the highest reported death toll in an air strike since eastern forces loyal to rebel military General Khalifa Haftar three months ago launched an offensive to wrest control of the capital from the internationally recognised Government. United Nations Libya envoy Ghassan Salame condemned the strike, saying it "clearly amounts to the level of a war crime". "The absurdity of this ongoing war has today reached its most heinous form and tragic outcome with this bloody, unjust slaughter," Mr Salame said in a statement The conflict is part of chaos in the oil-and-gas-producing nation since the NATO-backed overthrow of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The centre, which mainly houses migrants from other parts of Africa, is located next to a military camp. The Tripoli-based Government said dozens of people had been killed and wounded in an air strike blamed on the "war criminal Khalifa Haftar". Photographs showed 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 other parts of Africa fleeing poverty and war and trying to reach Italy by boat. However many get picked up by the Libyan coast guard, with support from the European Union, which wants to stem migration. Thousands of migrants are held in government-run detention centres in western Libya in what the United Nations says are often inhuman conditions. 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, General Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA), which is allied to a parallel government based in Tobruk, 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. 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. 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 General Haftar'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 the east and west. Reuters
