US NewsAt least 40 killed in strike on Tripoli migrant detention center: official

TRIPOLI, July 2 (Reuters) - An air strike late on Tuesday hit a detention center for mainly African migrants in a suburb of the Libyan capital of Tripoli, killing at least 40 people and wounding 80, a health official said.

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

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At least 40 people have been killed by an air strike that hit a migrant detention centre in Libya, officials say. Another 80 are reported to have been wounded in the explosion, which happened at a facility in an eastern suburb of the capital, Tripoli . The majority of those killed are reported to be

Nearly 40 migrants were killed in an air strike Tuesday night on their detention centre in a Tripoli suburb blamed on Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar, who has been trying for three months to seize the capital. At least 70 were also wounded in the raid on Tajoura, an emergency services spokesman told

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

FILE: A fighter loyal to the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) forces checks a building near the the Yarmouk military compound, south of the Libyan capital Tripoli following air strikes.

Malek Mersek, spokesman for a state emergency medical services, said 40 people had been killed and 80 wounded in the strike on the detention center in the Tajoura suburb located next to a military camp.

The Tripoli-based government said in a statement that dozens of people had been killed and wounded in an air strike blamed on the "war criminal Khalifa Haftar."

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.

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forced labor, sexual violence, and arbitrary detention of migrants and asylum seekers. With such strong accusations, the Libya Observer went to investigate one of the 24 official detention facilities for migrants that are formally under the control of the Tripoli -based Interior Ministry to see for ourselves.

(5 Sep 2018) Hundreds of migrants have escaped from a detention centre near Tripoli amid clashes in the capital, says The fighting between militias allied to the UN-backed government in Tripoli and an armed group from a nearby town killed at least 63 people, and underscored the country's lingering

© Thomson Reuters A migrant picks up clothes from among rubble at a detention centre for mainly African migrants that was hit by an airstrike in the Tajoura suburb of the Libyan capital of Tripoli, Libya July 3, 2019. REUTERS/Ismail Zitouny

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 coast guard supported by the European Union, which wants to stop migration.

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

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

© Thomson Reuters Migrants carry the remains of their belongings from among rubble at a detention centre for mainly African migrants that was hit by an airstrike in the Tajoura suburb of the Libyan capital of Tripoli, Libya July 3, 2019. REUTERS/Ismail Zitouny

On Monday, Haftar'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 center, 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 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 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 U.N. plans for an election to end rivalries between parallel administrations in east and west.