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By Ajnadin Mustafa and Moutaz Ali.
Tripoli, 27 April 2016:
Three alleged Libyan people smugglers, 14 Egyptians and two Syrians have perished in . . .[restrict]attacks in Bani Walid that started yesterday.
The Libya Herald has been told by Bani Walid councillor Abdulsalam Ajaj that the killings were triggered by a row over money.
“It is clear that the Egyptians failed to pay the smugglers’ fees when they reached the Bani Walid transit point, ” said Ajaj, “The smugglers refused to take them further and forcesd them to stay for a night or two somewhere in the middle of the desert. At some point the migrants grew angry and fought with the three smugglers and murdered them”.
Ajaj said the migrants then drove off in the smugglers’ vehicle. But they were stopped at a police checkpoint and taken to a migrant detention centre in Bani Walid. It was there that they were found by armed relatives of the dead Libyans, said Ajaj, and sixteen of them were killed.
UNSMIL chief Martin Kobler today condemned all the murders. “I strongly deplore these terrible killings” he said, “and call on those with authority on the ground in Bani Walid to ensure that the incidents are investigated and to prevent any further killings”.
This story has been updated from earlier this evening. [/restrict]
