UN chief's spokesperson on Libya airstrike report

The United Nations revealed chilling new details Monday about a double airstrike that smashed into a migrant detention centre in Libya, killing at least 50 people.

The attack last July was one of the deadliest assaults on civilians since the start of Libya’s civil war.

A new UN report said the actions of officials guarding the detention centre may have contributed to the high death toll.

It said guards prevented detainees from fleeing after the first airstrike struck the outskirts of the centre.

Some eyewitnesses said they were forced back inside at gunpoint.

Then came the second airstrike - a direct hit that caused the fatalities.

A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that "the report concurs with previous UN findings that the airstrikes were likely conducted by aircraft belonging to a foreign state".

The spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said the findings call for "independent, impartial and thorough investigations" into the incident.

The UN also condemned what it called the continued blatant violations of the arms embargo in Libya, despite the commitments made at a conference in Berlin earlier this month.