On Tuesday, one day after renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) announced that it would step up airstrikes on Tripoli, at least 44 people were killed and 130 injured when airstrikes hit a detention centre for migrants and refugees south of Tripoli.
UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salamé 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”.
Haftar launched his campaign to capture Tripoli from the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in early April, promising a swift victory that would bring stability to Libya for the first time since strongman Muammar Gaddafi was ousted in 2011. However, the offensive stalled after a few weeks.
Read more: Libya detention centre attack is possible war crime, says UN envoy
