Dozens killed in attack at detention center in Tripoli

An attack at a detention center on the outskirts of Libyan capital Tripoli has killed up to 40 migrants, government officials say.

Some 80 people were injured at the centre, which the UN-backed government says was hit by an air strike.

Anti-government forces led by warlord Gen Khalifa Haftar have accused government forces of bombarding it.

Most of the dead are believed to be Africans, attempting to reach Europe on clandestine sea crossings from Libya.

Libya is a main departure point for migrants from Africa fleeing poverty and war and trying to reach Italy by boat, but many are picked up and brought back by the Libyan coast guard, supported by the European Union.

Thousands are held in government-run detention centres in what human rights groups and the United Nations say are often inhuman conditions.

The country has been torn by violence and division since long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi was deposed and killed in 2011.

The UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, accused the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) of carrying out an air strike on the centre.

The "heinous crime" was "premeditated" and "precise", it said.

The LNA - led by Gen Haftar - was fighting government forces in the area where the strike happened.

It had announced on Monday that it would start heavy air strikes on targets in Tripoli after "traditional means" of war had been exhausted.

The LNA said its warplanes had bombed a pro-government camp near the centre and pro-government forces had fired shells in response, hitting the migrant centre by accident.

A spokesman for the UN refugee agency, Charlie Yaxley, said it could not confirm who was behind the attack on the centre.

No authority has full control over Libya and the country is extremely unstable, torn between several political and military factions, the two most important of which are led by Prime Minister Sarraj and Gen Haftar.