Large condemnation n of Saturday’s attack against Tripoli military academy

Tripoli Libya (PANA)   -  A large majority of Libyans  Sunday strongly condemned and expressed anger at the air bombardment carried out on Saturday evening against a military academy in the southern suburb of Tripoli, that left dozens dead and many others wounded, official source said here. 

Dozens of Libyans on Sunday morning took to the streets of Tripoli and other cities to demonstrate and denounce what they described as “horrible crime” while calling the presidential council to bring the perpetrators of that “barbarian attack” that targeted un-armed trainee students before Libyan courts and the international criminal court.

The presidential council of the Libyan government of national accord issued a communiqué on Sunday in which it decreed a three-day national mourning and accused ‘the foreign aviation’ backing the forces of Marshall Khalifa Haftar of being behind the bombardment of the Tripoli military aviation.

“On the other hand, no reaction was so far announced by the forces of Marshall Haftar who proclaimed himself General Commander of the forces of the Libyan National Army”.

The bombardment came within the framework of a “series of attacks targeting the civilian airports of Tripoli and Misratah, hospitals, schools and popular districts, leaving hundreds of victims and thousands of displaced among civilians”, added the communiqué of the presidential council.

The presidential council reaffirmed that its revenge "will be tough on the field of fighting" before insisting on "the taking of legal procedures against the perpetrators of those violations and countries backing them whose hands are spoilt with Libyan blood".

Marshall Haftar had on 4 April launched a military campaign to take control of Tripoli and the country’s whole western region and to overthrow the government of national accord recognized by the international community.

This campaign, which is in its tenth month, has, according to un-official statistics, claimed the lives of 1,500 persons, wounded thousand others, displaced more than 120,000, and damaged infrastructure in addition to the blockade of classes in several schools near the fighting zones. 

The ministry of health of the government of national accord estimated the death toll at 28 without however giving an exact figure of the wounded.

The information center of the military operation - "Volcano of anger"- launched by the same government revealed 28 dead and 18 others wounded.

The information center posted ’horrible’ images of the bodies of hundreds of victims of the attack received at "Khadreh" hospital located  5km from the seat of the military academy.

Reliable sources said that students were queuing up to enter their dormitories when a drone hit the center, killing several of them.

The UN support mission in Libya, UNSMIL, ‘’strongly condemned the attack against the military academy.

In a communiqué issued on Sunday on its website, the mission insisted on the fact that “the escalation of the armed clashes such as this attack will not but complicate further the situation in Libya and threatens the opportunities offered for the resumption of the political negotiations".

For the mission, "the attacks which target, kill civilians, destroy infrastructure like hospitals and schools are likely to be considered as war crimes".

"The criminals will not escape justice and will be arrested and jailed sooner or later," added the communiqué, offering "sad condolences to the families of the victims and wishing early recover to the wounded".

Libyan internet users shared thousands of tweets to strongly condemn Saturday’s horrible attack against un-armed students of the military academy who were preparing to enter their dormitory.

Libyan journalist and writer Abadel Salam Qamati wondered on his Facebook page about the faults committed by those students to deserve such fate.

The PANA correspondent in Tripoli noted that several relatives of the victims of the attack on Saturday evening visited the hospital, horrified, looking for their children or close relatives among the victims after unsuccessful search carried out at the military academy.

-0-      PANA     AD/IN/TBM/MSA/RA   5Jan2020