The Tripoli Massacres: Seven More at Bab al-Aziziyah

December 1, 2011
last update Dec. 8

<<The Tripoli Massacres

These victims may or may not be included in the approximatley two dozen mostly-black apparent Gaddafi fighters found scattered outside Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah compound. They are, however, quite near the few of those that we've seen, prominently at the roundabout, just north and sort of inside the compound, in a barren, scrubby patch between two security walls. (images below).

I'm not sure how to define Bab al-Aziziyah, but there's a clear divide, with an open highway running north-south between the main compound and an apparent annex to the east. On both sides of that divide are walled areas within which bunker-looking buildings have mostly been bombed. The imagery is surprising, showing that Google maps must've just updated it. (direct link to current view of the compound, centered on the location under study - zoom in for body locale, zoom out for whole compound.) The bomb damage and scattered civilian cars inside the new tourist attraction, as well as improvised truck-based checkpoints nearby, all suggest this is Tripoli after the takeover, no older than late August.

The exact area I identified was also closed-off with some kind of slats across the south end, to keep traffic at the roundabout from banking right into the field. The rebels apparently gained access by removing some of theslats. That alone makes this within the supposedly secured area where one might think only Gaddafi's people could have days-old corpses stashed. And far moreso than those at the well-travelled roundabout, these seven could possibly have gone unseen here for days.

But they were seen on the 25th. A Reuters news video covering the roundabout victims meandered far enough north to see and describe how "seven bodies were also found piled into a wasteland nearby, their hands tied." They showed the image below, as well as a close-up from the same view:

Note the damaged gray wall, with a large hole in its mid span, not far from these bodies. A larger image I found of the same bodies, original source unknown, reveals a rather grisly burned face. A different wall is visible here, a white one with stars and a guard tower opposite the gray one we saw above. Note the proximity of tower, tree,and a  gate, allowing access from the dirt road outside to some crossroad inside.

Victim analysis... forthcoming perhaps. It's a messy scene, with decay and mysterious fluids. It could be blood, but something tells me they were dead when they got here. It seems to he the far victim in odd clothes the fluid is associated with, It could be oil. This victim seems to have burning of the face, among other possible problems...

On the location, walls with towers like this are seen around Baba al-Aziziyah's east side, near the roundabout area. I decided the photo above was of this spot below, the white wall here to the west, running nearly north-south. The time of photography is mid-day, shortly before solar noon. The sun is high and just a bit east of due south. The gate isn't visible in the Google Maps imagery, but the faint signs of a road behind the wall seeming to pass through it at that point are. So it's a gate.

Update Dec. 4: The exact location of the bodies is pre-marked in the satellite imagery - the large, dark spot right across from the gate, 4/5 of the way to the eastern wall. I can see the shape of the "stain" they would leave (a large roundish blob of oil/blood/whatever that is, with a south-running sub-blob left of center, per the photos). 

This is noted in comments below, along with contributor Petri Krohn's observation from looking at Google Earth (which I haven't installed yet) that "I see shadows on the blob, indicating it is not just blood on the ground but real bodies." With an enhancement (at right) I can agree for another reason. I see a light patch just right of center corresponding roughly to the lightest patch you'd see looking from on these bodies from above - the upper back, shoulder, and left arm of the man in the white shirt, expanded with glare effect to look larger than it is.

Petri also tells me this imagery is from August 29 (as Google Earth shows), meaning these bodies were still there four days after being filmed, six days after rebels took control of the area. As far as the map goes, these victims of sloppy rebel cruelty are part of the landscape now. 

Now, who were they, who killed them, and when and where and how did that happen? These questions will have to wait for now. One visual clue, perhaps, suggests they came from within the eastern compound walls; the overview shows a faint arcing path, traced in red above, just north of the spot. It starts scraping across the road inside the eastern compound - through the hole in the wall? - and across the field to about the dump spot. After carrying and re-piling the corpses in a clear patch of dirt 20-25 feet away, their body-dragging sledge apparently got lighter and left no further mark.