Libyan pro-government forces said they had targeted a weapons depot belonging to Libya Dawn militia
Libyan pro-government forces said they had targeted a weapons depot belonging to Libya Dawn militia, as peace talks continued in Morocco and a UN special envoy met both sides late Monday.
A militia spokesman said however that the raid had hit a refugee camp, killing eight civilians. Military spokesman Colonel Ahmed al-Mesmari said "the air strike targeted a weapons storage facility belonging to Libya Dawn" in Tarhuna, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) southeast of Tripoli.
Libya Dawn is a militia alliance that has installed a rival government and legislature in opposition to the country's internationally recognized government. A spokesman for the group denied any of its weapons were in the area.
"Eight Libyan civilians died in the strike. Sadly this is their strategy, to kill civilians and claim to the international community that they are after weapons," he said, referring to the Western-backed government.
Mesmari said that, after the air raid, members of Libya Dawn attacked the house of a military officer and "killed his wife, his daughter, his son, his brother and other people who were there" in retaliation. The group denied the claim.
Mesmari meanwhile told AFP that pro-government forces had shot down a Libya Dawn plane at Ar-Rajban, some 170 kilometers (105 miles) southwest of Tripoli. The Libya TV channel reported that pro-government forces had captured one of the pilots and another had died at the scene.
UN special envoy Bernardino Leon said Monday he hoped for progress at ongoing talks in Morocco. The first names for a new Libyan unity government could emerge this week, Leon said.
"It is going to be a difficult discussion and I wouldn't like expectations to be too high, bearing in mind how difficult the situation is on the ground. But there is a possibility and we will do our best to reach there by the end of this week," he said in Brussels.
Late Monday, he met the internationally recognized foreign minister Mohamed Al-Dayri outside Tobruk airport. "They discussed the ongoing dialogue," a source at the foreign ministry told AFP.
Leon then went to Tripoli where he met members of the General National Congress (GNC), the alternative parliament, according to an AFP photographer.
