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By Hadi Fornaji.
Tunis, 11 June 2016:
The UN special envoy Martin Kobler has said that he is impressed by the rapid progress . . .[restrict]of GNA forces against the so-called Islamic State in Sirte. He also said that he had had a meeting with representatives of the international community and stressed upon them the need to deliver medical supplies to Libya.
The call comes as Misrata hospital continues to struggle dealing with the numbers of dead and wounded coming from the battlefront.
Kobler also warned that the International Criminal Court in The Hague would investigate new war crimes in Libya. The call followed reports that children had been killed by LNA airstrikes in Derna.
Tweeting to “remind all fighters to respect international humanitarian law’ and that “civilians must not be targeted”, he said that he was deeply saddened to hear that two children and two women had been killed in the strikes, noting that targeting civilians “may be a war crime”. Those who kill civilians had to be held accountable, he insisted.
The Omar Mukhtar operations room, in charge of LNA action in the Derna area has, however, strongly denied that any civilian sites were targeted. According to Libya’s Channel TV, the head of the operations room, Brigadier Kamal Al-Jabali, has said that the aircraft had targeted tanks and armoured vehicles based in a company compound in Derna.
This is not the first time that allegations of targeting civilians in the town have been made, or denied by Jabali.
Meanwhile, separately, Kobler has also called on the Presidency Council “to create conditions to request exemptions from weapons embargo from UN Security Council for GNA forces”. This is seen as meaning that there has to be a united military force, wholly loyal to the Presidency. Such a situation currently does not exist. [/restrict]
