Strike on Libyan migrant center sparks outrage

China Daily | Updated: 2019-07-05 07:59

TRIPOLI, Libya - Outrage and calls for an independent probe mounted on Wednesday as 44 migrants were killed in an airstrike on a detention center in Libya. The United Nations said the airstrike could constitute a war crime.

UN chief Antonio Guterres denounced the "horrendous" attack and demanded an independent investigation.

Libya's internationally recognized government and arch-foe rebel leader Khalifa Haftar traded blame for the deadly assault, which the European Union called a "horrific" attack.

Bodies were strewed on the floor of a hangar in the Tripoli suburb of Tajoura, mixed with the blood-soaked clothes of migrants, an AFP photographer said.

"There were bodies, blood and pieces of flesh everywhere," a Moroccan survivor, 26-year-old Al-Mahdi Hafyan, said from his hospital bed where he was being treated for a leg wound.

Hafyan said he had been detained in the center for three months, after coming to Libya with a fellow Moroccan hoping to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea.

His friend survived the attack unscathed, but his T-shirt was stained with other people's blood. "We were lucky. We were at the back of the hangar."

Tuesday night's strike left a hole around three meters in diameter in the floor 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 wounded, the UN said.

The UN shared the coordinates of the Tajoura detention center east of Tripoli with the warring sides to ensure that civilians sheltering there were safe, Guterres said.

UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame said the "attack clearly could constitute a war crime, as it killed by surprise innocent people whose dire conditions forced them to be in that shelter".

Around 600 migrants and refugees were held in the Tajoura center, the compound's head Noureddine al-Grifi said, adding that people were wounded in another hangar.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

But the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord, or GNA, denounced the attack as a "heinous crime" and blamed it on Haftar, who in early April launched an offensive from the east to seize the capital.

On Wednesday evening, a spokesman for Haftar's Libyan National Army, or LNA, said: "The (pro-Haftar) forces deny their responsibility in the attack on the migrant center of Tajoura".

Ahmad al-Mesmari blamed the attack on the GNA, accusing it of "plotting" against the LNA.

"We never target civilians. Our armed forces are professional and accurate in their strikes," Mesmari said, calling for an investigation into the carnage.

The European Union - echoing many countries and international organizations - called for an independent probe. "Those responsible should be held to account", an EU statement said.

Migrants 'at risk'

The UN Refugee Agency also deplored the attack.

"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, UNHCR head Filippo Grandi tweeted.

The UN's mission in Libya estimated that around 3,500 migrants and refugees held in detention centers near the combat zone are at risk.

Wracked by chaos since the 2011 conflict that ousted former leader Muammar Gadhafi, Libya has become a major departure point for migrants from other countries seeking to reach Europe, even though they are vulnerable to numerous militias vying for control of the Libya's oil wealth.

Activists said those migrants' plight has worsened since Haftar launched the offensive against Tripoli. More than 700 people have been killed and 4,000 wounded since the assault began in early April, while nearly 100,000 have been displaced, according to UN agencies.

Agencies