UN probe reveals crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Libya

War crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Libya since 2016, a United Nations investigation revealed Monday.

"There are reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes have been committed in Libya, while violence perpetrated in prisons and against migrants there may amount to crimes against humanity," the Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya said in a statement.

The first findings from outside experts commissioned by the Human Rights Council released Monday chronicle accounts of crimes like murder, torture, enslavement, extrajudicial killings and rape.

The "fact-finding mission" could send a potent signal to key international and regional powers amid violence and mistreatment that has wracked Libya since the fall of former autocrat Moammar Gadhafi a decade ago.

"The investigations indicated that several parties to the conflicts violated (international humanitarian law) and potentially committed war crimes," the U.N. fact-finding mission led by Mohamed Auajjar said in a report.

The report specifically accused mercenaries from Wagner, a Russian security firm, of having shot prisoners. "There are thus reasonable grounds to believe that Wagner personnel may have committed the war crime of murder," it said.