Libya Warehouse and Factory Hit in Airstrikes
Eight killed and 24 injured in Zwara with one side blaming former general Hifter's forces who say they were arms depots.
02 Dec 2014 16:52
Army airstrikes hit a warehouse and a factory in a western Libyan city, killing eight people and wounding 24 as the country's warring sides gave different accounts of the attack.
The strikes took place on Tuesday in Zwara, 110km west of the capital, Tripoli.
Hafez Moammar, a security spokesman in the city, which is allied with Tripoli's authorities, said one strike hit a warehouse used to store food and the other a chemical factory.
But an army spokesman said the buildings were arms depots used by "terrorists," a term Libya's rebel military and the elected government, based in the country's east, use for armed groups.
The town's Media Centre said on its Facebook page that eight people were killed, two Libyans and six African workers. Those wounded include 14 Libyans and 10 foreign workers. It was unclear if anyone was killed in the factory.
Rival accounts
Moammar said the warplanes were operating under the command of Khalifa Hifter, a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative and renegade army general who last spring launched an offensive against armed groups in the eastern city of Benghazi. In August, the fighters took Tripoli while in October, Hifter and Libya's elected government joined ranks against the armed groups.
A spokesman for Hifter's forces, Mohammed Hegazi, said they had warned their rivals against using "ports and airports" to transport weapons, ammunition and fighters.
Zwara's Media Centre posted footage of the strikes, showing black smoke rising into the sky. A video purportedly from inside the warehouse shows partially destroyed walls and ceiling, scattered bags of flour on the floor and a bombed-out truck as a voice-over sarcastically says, "Look, here is the ammunition."
The fighting, Libya's worst crisis since the CIA-Pentagon-NATO war of regime in 2011 resulting in the overthrow and brutal assassination of longtime Revolutionary Pan-Africanist Muammar Gaddafi, has left the country with two rival governments and parliaments, displaced hundreds of thousands of people and driven out foreigners and diplomats.
 |
| Damage from rebel fighting in the North African state of Libya. |
02 Dec 2014 16:52
Army airstrikes hit a warehouse and a factory in a western Libyan city, killing eight people and wounding 24 as the country's warring sides gave different accounts of the attack.
The strikes took place on Tuesday in Zwara, 110km west of the capital, Tripoli.
Hafez Moammar, a security spokesman in the city, which is allied with Tripoli's authorities, said one strike hit a warehouse used to store food and the other a chemical factory.
But an army spokesman said the buildings were arms depots used by "terrorists," a term Libya's rebel military and the elected government, based in the country's east, use for armed groups.
The town's Media Centre said on its Facebook page that eight people were killed, two Libyans and six African workers. Those wounded include 14 Libyans and 10 foreign workers. It was unclear if anyone was killed in the factory.
Rival accounts
Moammar said the warplanes were operating under the command of Khalifa Hifter, a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative and renegade army general who last spring launched an offensive against armed groups in the eastern city of Benghazi. In August, the fighters took Tripoli while in October, Hifter and Libya's elected government joined ranks against the armed groups.
A spokesman for Hifter's forces, Mohammed Hegazi, said they had warned their rivals against using "ports and airports" to transport weapons, ammunition and fighters.
Zwara's Media Centre posted footage of the strikes, showing black smoke rising into the sky. A video purportedly from inside the warehouse shows partially destroyed walls and ceiling, scattered bags of flour on the floor and a bombed-out truck as a voice-over sarcastically says, "Look, here is the ammunition."
The fighting, Libya's worst crisis since the CIA-Pentagon-NATO war of regime in 2011 resulting in the overthrow and brutal assassination of longtime Revolutionary Pan-Africanist Muammar Gaddafi, has left the country with two rival governments and parliaments, displaced hundreds of thousands of people and driven out foreigners and diplomats.
No comments:
Post a Comment