TRIPOLI, July 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — An air strike has killed five doctors in a hospital in the southern outskirts of Libya’s capital Tripoli, an official from the UN-backed government says.
A warplane belonging to Khalifa Hafta, the rogue general who commands the Libyan National Army, carried out the attack, the health ministry spokesman added.
The LNA has not commented.
Libya has been roiled in conflict since the fall of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Fighting between the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, and Haftar’s LNA, has claimed 1,100 lives since April, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The fighting has remained deadlocked on the outskirts of the capital, with both sides resorting to air strikes.
Saturday’s bombing also wounded seven people, including some rescuers, Lamine al-Hashem, the spokesman from the health ministry, said.
“It was a direct hit against the field hospital which was packed with medical teams,” Hashemi added.
The attack was the third to target a hospital in the capital’s south.
African migrants who use Libya as a key crossing point to Europe have also been caught up in the fighting.
The GNA blamed the LNA for last month’s air strike on a detention centre that killed at least 50 migrants.
However, the LNA said it had attacked a pro-government camp near the centre and pro-government forces had fired shells in response, hitting the migrant centre by accident.
The UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said the attack could constitute a war crime. — NNN-AGENCIES
