TRIPOLI, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Libyan navy on Monday rescued 158 illegal immigrants, including women and children, off the country's western coast.
Navy Spokesman Ayob Qassem told Xinhua the rescued immigrants included 115 men, 34 women and nine children on a broken rubber boat 26 miles off the coast of the city of Al-Khoms, some 120 km east of Tripoli.
The spokesman added that the rescued immigrants are of different African nationalities.
Libyan security on Monday recovered eight bodies of illegal immigrants, who suffocated to death inside a closed truck, in the western city of Zuwara.
Due to the state of insecurity and chaos in the country since the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Gaddafi's regime, Libya became a preferred point of departure for illegal immigrants wanting to cross the Mediterranean towards European shores.