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.

Trump says migrant deaths wouldn't happen if Democrats would agree to 'right laws'

Photographs of the two migrants, lying face down near the bank of the river, has sparked new outrage and controversy over the current border crisis. Asked about the images, Trump suggested that if Congress fixed the laws, as he has demanded, such incidents would not happen. “People are running through the Rio Grande," he told reporters on the White House South Lawn, before leaving for Japan. If "we had the right laws ... people won’t come up and people won’t get killed.

at a detention centre for mainly African migrants , in a suburb of Tripoli , Libya, July 3, 2019, in this said 40 people had been killed and 80 wounded in the strike on the detention center in the An LNA official denied his force had hit the detention center , saying militias allied to Tripoli had

BENGHAZI, Libya — An airstrike hit a detention center for migrants early Wednesday in the Libyan capital, killing at least 40 people, a health official Eighty other migrants were wounded in the strike on the detention center in the Tajoura neighborhood of Tripoli , said Malek Merset, a spokesman for

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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TRIPOLI , July 2 (Reuters) – 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 40 people and wounding 80, a health For more information on Google Analytics cookies, see the official Google Analytics page.

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 40 people 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

© 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.