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Amnesty: Potential War Crimes Committed in Libya Fighting

VOA News

   Human rights group Amnesty International says it has evidence of
   potential war crimes committed by warring parties vying for control of
   Libya's capital, Tripoli.

   In a report issued Tuesday, the London-based rights group said
   combatants have killed and maimed scores of civilians by launching
   indiscriminate attacks and using "a range of inaccurate explosive
   weapons" in populated urban areas.

   "Scores of civilians have been killed and injured as both sides use
   everything from Gadhafi-era unguided rockets to modern drone-launched
   guided missiles in attacks that could amount to war crimes," said Brian
   Castner, Amnesty International's senior crisis adviser on arms and
   military operations.

   Amnesty says its members conducted the first in-depth field
   investigation across the front line since fighting broke out across
   Tripoli April 4. The investigators visited 33 air and ground strike
   sites in and around Tripoli and interviewed witnesses, victims, militia
   members, local officials and medical workers. Their report found that
   100 civilians were killed or wounded and 100,000 others were displaced.

   The fighting began when the eastern-based commander,General Khalifa
   Haftar, ordered the Libyan National Army to move on Tripoli in a
   "victorious march" against the Government of National Accord (GNA) of
   Prime Minister Fayez al Sarraj, which controls territory in
   northwestern Libya.

   The GNA is Libya's U.N.-backed and internationally recognized
   government. The LNA was formed after the country's 2011 civil war that
   overthrew former dictator Moammar Gadhafi and plunged the country into
   chaos. It includes former rebels as well as members of Libya's former
   national army.

   Amnesty says no officials from either side of the conflict have
   responded to questions about the report's findings.

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