Libya calls for UN probe into Derna airstrike

By Walid Abdullah

TRIPOLI (AA) – Libya’s presidential council, which operates under the country’s UN-backed unity government, has called for a UN investigation into an airstrike that killed and injured scores in the eastern city of Derna.

At least 17 people were killed and dozens injured when an unidentified plane carried out an airstrike in the city on Monday.

“This air bombardment was undoubtedly a war crime,” the council said in a statement on Tuesday.

It went on to call on the UN Security Council to “intervene and investigate” into the attack.

The council called for “lifting the siege imposed on the city and allowing the entry of humanitarian aid into the city”.

The perpetrator of Monday’s airstrike is not yet known.

The Mujahideen Shura Council, which is currently in de facto control of Derna, took the city from Daesh in 2015.

Derna is the only city in eastern Libya not being controlled by forces led by East Libya-based General Khalifa Haftar.

The city has been under a blockade by pro-Haftar forces.

Libya has been wracked by turmoil since 2011, when a bloody uprising ended with the ouster and death of longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Following Gaddafi’s departure, the country's simmering political divisions yielded three rival seats of government -- one of which is based in the eastern city of Tobruk -- and a host of competing militia groups.