Libyan official says airstrike hits food warehouse in western Libya, killing 4

CAIRO – A Libyan official says airstrikes have hit a foodstuffs warehouse in western Libya, killing four people and injuring 15.

Hafez Moammar, spokesman for security forces in the Mediterranean city of Zwara, 70 miles (110 kilometers) west of Tripoli, says three of the dead were foreign nationals. He added that a second airstrike hit a chemicals factory.

He said the warplanes were operating under Khalifa Hifter, a former army general who last spring unilaterally led an offensive against Islamist militias in the eastern city of Benghazi. On Oct. 15, Hifter and the elected government joined ranks against Islamist militias. Hifter's office subsequently said the buildings it struck contained weapons, not food.

The elected government has been forced to convene in the east since Islamist-allied militias took over Tripoli.