UAE drone strike on factory near Tripoli killed 8 civilians: HRW

A United Arab Emirates (UAE) drone strike on a biscuit factory near the Libyan capital Tripoli on November 18 killed eight civilians and injured 27 others, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said. In a report released on Wednesday, the rights group said the UAE appeared to take little or no action to minimise civilian casualties and called on Emirati authorities to conduct a transparent investigation into the incident. "Since the current armed conflict in Tripoli erupted in April 2019, the UAE has been conducting air and drone strikes to support the Libyan Arab Armed forces, previously known as the Libyan National Army [LNA], one of two major parties to the conflict, some of which have resulted in civilian casualties," HRW said. "All causalities in the November incident were civilian factory workers, including seven Libyans and 28 foreign nationals, all of them men." Human Rights Watch visited the site and found remnants of at least four Blue Arrow-7 (BA-7) laser-guided missiles that were launched by a Wing Loong-II drone.