Airstrike hits migrant detention center in Libya, 44 killed
AP
An airstrike hit a detention center for migrants in the Libyan capital early Wednesday, killing at least 44 people and wounding more than 130, the UN mission to the war-torn country said.
The airstrike raises further concerns about the European Union’s policy of partnering with Libyan militias to prevent migrants from crossing the Mediterranean, which often leaves them at the mercy of brutal traffickers or stranded in squalid detention centers near the front lines.
It could also lead to greater Western pressure on Khalifa Hifter, a Libyan general whose forces launched an offensive on Tripoli in April. The Tripoli-based government blamed his self-styled Libyan National Army for the airstrike and called for the UN support mission in Libya to establish a fact-finding committee to investigate.
The airstrike 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.
