Khamis Brigade Shed Massacre: Khaled Khalef Khebir

January 9, 2011
last edits Feb. 20 
(misspelled name changed: Kheiber to Khebir)


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This post will deal with Khaled Khalef Khebir, an ambiguously connected character seen amongst the charred remains in the massacre shed behind the Yarmouk military base, south of Tripoli. These cinder-crusted skeletons, despite the mass of dubious evidence to the contrary, were likely of some part of the Khamis Brigade who had held the base until, apparently, August 23 the given date of the massacre. Largely black men would have been selected for on-site execution, a usual tactic of the Misrata brigades, and the bodies left un-charred around the shed are in fact primarily of brutally executed black males.


Inside the shed, identities were burned away, and among these carbonized corpses, on August 28, this man with the unfortunate initials K.K.K. was filmed by France 24 hugging another man and apparently laughing amongst their enemies. (0:20 in this video, posted Aug. 28)

But the too-many survivors, some self-described family of those who died, and too many other witnesses clarify these were not Gaddafi soldiers but their victims. And it really is funny how similar laughing and crying are. The narrator clarifies he's crying and in deep pain over the loss of his dear brother in this inferno. I don't understand spoken French, but Contributor Hurriya does a bit, and offered this translation, with no guarantees:

Khaled est en état de choc. Il pleure, dans les bras d'un ami. KHALED CRIES IN THE ARMS OF A FRIEND. NOT WITHOUT REASON. BETWEEN THE BURNED BODIES FOUND ON SATURDAY WERE THE REMAINS OF HIS BROTHER, KIDNAPPED ON 18 JUNE.

As will become more clear, this Khaled is apparently the same man I had listed as an alleged escapee from the shed massacre, formerly #12 on the big witness list. I'll move him to a new "maybe" category on the next edit. The original entry said:

12 – Khaled Khalef Kheiber
Euronews filed on an August 27 visit on a witness who, through a third party, apparently claims to be an escapee whose brother wasn’t so lucky.

Khaled Khalef Khebir says his brother Abdulkhalim is one of the dead. “They disappeared five months ago and had been transferred from one place to another,” another man explained.[EU]

That was never the strongest case for inclusion, resting on "they disappeared," suggesting perhaps the brothers Abdulkhalim and Khaled, and on his apparent direct knowledge of his brother's fate. After only four days, how could he be sure his brother hadn't escaped but simply hadn't managed to reach home yet? This report also suggested whoever "they" were were arrested back in March. But the France 24 report said mid-June, and only mentioned the one brother.

It's possible these are two separate sets of brothers, with the one named Khaled surviving. Otherwise, I consider it more likely these are the same and will proceed with that notion.

A more recent find explains how Khaled knew his brother had been taken there and probably died there, if not having been there with him. Richard Spencer, for the Telegraph, Aug 28, used a different family name spelling, and a different name for the dead brother - Abdulhakim vs. Abdulkhalim. I thought I heard Khaled mention, to France 24, Suq al-Juma, the Tripoli neighborhood. Spencer says "Mr Kabir believed his brother's only crime was to come from Souq al-Jumaa, a rebellious suburb which was one of the first areas to rise up." Speaking of an escapee, Spencer wrote in part:

Abdulhakim Khadifa Kabir might have tried the same, his brother Khaled said, but he was almost certainly too sick to make the attempt. 

He was seized at a roadblock on June 18. From a released detainee, he knew his brother was still alive 20 days ago [Aug 7], but very weak.

By this, any knowledge of his brother exact fate was second-hand information. "They" apparently does not refer to the two brothers. Who it does refer to isn't clear.

Spencer also mentioned in the Telegraph how "he [Khaled Kabir] pointed to the corner where inmates had been strung up to be whipped." Maybe he learned that too from the the same released inmate. And perhaps that was the eminent judge who served time there with Abdulwhatever. As Spencer explained,

The shed's inmates were certainly a motley collection. Mr Kabir was a casual labourer. Tucked in alongside him was a judge, Abdul Hadi Abusheiwa, arrested in May because of his ties to Mustafa Abdul Jalil, the head of the rebels' National Transitional Council. He was released in July, but had returned to see what happened afterwards.

He could hardly then testify to Mr. Kabir's status on August 7. Unless it was through someone else, perhaps. Justice Abusheiwa could be the source of Khaled's claims, but either way, he's of potential interest as well, and will get his own post later.

Khaled is apparently the same person all around, I could scrap him from the witness list altogether. However, the Euronews story (suggesting he was detained with his brother, back in March) was different enough from the France 24 one the next day (With Abdulwhatever alone arrested in mid-June) that it's possible he was at one point trying to pass himself of as an escapee. Someone perhaps tipped him off that they had enough, so the next day he returned to clarify the record.