An airstrike hit a detention centre for migrants near the Libyan capital of Tripoli early Wednesday, killing at least 44 people and wounding dozens of others in an attack that the UN human rights chief said could amount to a war crime.
The Tripoli-based government blamed the attack on forces associated with General Khalifa Hifter, whose Libyan National Army has been waging an offensive against rival militias in the capital of the war-torn North African country since April.
It refocused attention and raised questions about the European Union's policy of cooperating with the militias that hold migrants in crowded and squalid detention centers to prevent them from crossing the Mediterranean to seek better lives in Europe.
Most of them were apprehended by the Libyan coast guard, which is funded and trained by the EU to stem the flow of migrants.
At the United Nations, the Security Council scheduled an emergency session for later Wednesday on the airstrike in Tripoli's Tajoura neighbourhood, and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an independent investigation.
Hifter's forces said they were targeting a nearby military site, not the detention centre. There also were suspicions of involvement by foreign countries allied with his forces. Countries assisting Hifter include Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia.
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Two migrants interviewed by the Associated Press said the airstrike hit a compound that houses a weapons warehouse and an adjacent detention centre holding about 150 migrants, mostly Sudanese and Moroccans. The two spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
Online video purported to be from inside the detention centre showed blood and human remains mixed with rubble and the belongings of the victims.
The UN gave an initial figure of 44 dead and more than 130 wounded.
But the two migrants told the AP that three or four escaped harm and about 20 were wounded. They said the rest were killed, indicating the final death toll could be much higher.
Prince Alfani, the Libya medical coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, visited the detention center hours before the airstrike and said it had held 126 migrants. Survivors fear for their lives, he said, urging their immediate evacuation.
Charlie Yaxley, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency, said the detention centre's proximity to the weapons depot "made it a target for the airstrikes."
"Coordinates of this detention centre were well-known to both sides of the conflict," Yaxley said. "It was known that there were 600 people living inside. So there can be no excuse for this centre having been hit."
Later Wednesday, LNA spokesman Ahmed al-Mesmari also denied that its forces targeted the detention centre and said the UN should investigate. He also blamed another militia in Misrata for airstrikes south of Tripoli that killed children in what he termed "a terrorist operation."