Denying charges by the Libyan eastern-based parliament, forces loyal to the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord, headed by Fayez al-Sarraj, said they did not torture, kill and run over hostages and those injured from the Libya National Army (LNA) in the battle for Gharyan.
The GNA on Thursday officially claimed seizing control over the strategic northwestern town. The LNA has since launched a counter-offensive to recapture it.
Talal al-Mayhoub, chairman of the National Defense and Security Committee of the Tobruk-based parliament, accused pro-Sarraj militias of committing heinous human rights violations that amount to war crimes.
“Terror groups, criminal militias and contraband smugglers took advantage of security stability enjoyed in LNA-liberated areas, to ambush and capture Gharyan town,” he said.
In a statement, he accused GNA affiliates of “committing mass killings against prisoners, trampling them over with cars.”
“They killed the wounded at the Gharyan hospital in cold blood. They also prevented the evacuation of the injured. GNA militias blocked the way for ambulances trying to leave with the wounded,” he added, pointing out to the harrowing death that they met.
Meanwhile, Libyan human rights groups demanded holding a transparent investigation into the charges being pressed against GNA proxies.
Head of Libya's National Human Rights Commission Ahmed Abdul Hakim Hamza said reported crimes committed at the Gharyan area hospital, if backed with evidence, would “undisputedly constitute a war crime.”
Hamza called for conducting “a comprehensive and transparent investigation by the Libyan Attorney General's Office, the United Nations Support Mission in the country and International Criminal Court,” stressing that “such war crimes are within the jurisdiction of the ICC, according to the Rome Statute on which the ICC was established.”
