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Friday, February 17, 2012

Khamis Brigade Shed Massacre: The Death Toll

February 17, 2012
(incomplete)

<< The Tripoli Massacres 
      << Khamis Brigade Shed Massacre 

Underscoring the need for a real investigation of the Khamis Brigade shed massacre is the fact that there is no solid word on even the number of dead, let alone just who they are and who they were really killed by. Here is an analysis of the ambiguity in search of a best guess of the true alleged death toll.

120-200: First Reports, Aug. 25
An early disconnect on the death toll aired days before most of the world heard a peep about this, and apparently before the cover story was formalized. The main news day was August 28, with the first famous coverage on the 27th. Amnesty International seemed to have a big scoop reporting on it early on the 26th. But earlier yet people were re-posting an ITN news video and a now-elusive Telegraph article, both dated the 25th.

Alleged survivor Munir el Goula (family name phonetic) spoke to ITN News. Reporter Lindsey Hilsum related how “he says somehow he escaped,” but she didn’t explain if he explained how. One of the three brothers he was in with escaped too and was there (but silent) for the interview. Including the other two brothers, Munir “believes 20 soldiers and more than a hundred prisoners were killed.” How many more than a hundred is presumably not much, or he'd probably give a better estimate. This sound like about 120-150 prisoners maybe.

Alleged survivor Abdulatti Musbah Haleem spoke at about the same time to Andrew Gilligan, in a Telegraph piece it seems they never published on-line themselves (and most of the re-postings have been pulled now too). Here it remains at a rebel propaganda site. Original title: Children 'among 180 slaughtered' in Tripoli. Andrew Gilligan, August 25, 2011 (Most re-postings give the 26th, but per this early re-post, 2 am the 26th, it was from apparently late on the 25th.)

There are a lot of numbers, and big ones, in this piece.
A group of about 180 civilian prisoners, seven of them children, were massacred by Gadhafi forces earlier this week, one of the survivors has told The Daily Telegraph.
[...]
Gadhafi troops and Tuareg mercenary fighters attacked a group of 200 prisoners
“There were about 200 of us in a hangar at the base,” he said.
[...]
he and about 30 others ran out through a hole they had made in the hangar wall.
“Some of us did not make it because they started shooting again.”
“There were about 200 people in there and as far as I know only 18 survived,” said Mr Haleem.
 
A doctor at the hospital said 163 people had been killed at the site. He said about 20 survivors had been treated.
Dr. See-Through Salem, I presume?

The middle range:
Physicians for Human rights reports 153 prisoners on the 23rd, based on a decent call thatthis is the approximate middle of the given ranges, and the single most specified number.

BBC, Aug. 28:
"Up to 150 civilians from different parts of Libya were being held there, according to Fathallah [Abdullahal-Ashter]."

HRW Aug. 27
"[Abdulrahim Ibrahim Bashir, 25] said that guards at the warehouse, used as a prison, read out 153 names of detainees in the roll call the day of the killings. He estimated that 20 escaped from the attack and said that around 125 of the 153 detainees were civilians.

Susan Ormiston, CBC reported on the 28th there were 153 prisoners.

Le Monde/Le Matin: suddenly the door opened, Friday, August 26, and grenades were thrown at the 150 prisoners

Der Spiegel English:
Ali Boukhatwa says there were initially 150 prisoners here. There are now about 50 corpses, and he does not know where the others are.

Anthony Loyd, The Australian:
"But we know for a fact that there were more than 150 prisoners in the barn when the firing started and that only about ten escaped. What has been done with the other bodies?"

AFP via al Arabiya, January:
"His crime, which he acknowledged in front of an AFP team touring the prison, was that he burned alive around 150 men in a garage in Tripoli."
Implied escapees: Zero.

Away from the Middle
Arwa Damon, CNN, recalled her witness, Mounir Massound Own, "says there were 175 people crammed inside here" when the massacre happened around him. [CNN1] He said about two dozen others managed to escape, but he lost track of his brother in the chaos. He has not heard from his brother since that day, he said, and assumes that he did not survive.[CNN2]

PHR:
At a makeshift prison in the Khalat Al Forjan neighborhood in Salahaddin district, loyalist forces reportedly massacred 53 civilians and combatants. [PHR p. 14]
(should be "at least?"And doesn't include the outside the shed victims? Who does PHR think allegedly killed them?)

ICC Prosecutor See Site of Alleged Libya Killings
Associated Press
By Rami Al-Shaheibi
November 23, 2011

The Libyan Society of the Missing says that 106 prisoners were killed in the building on August 23 when Gadhafi loyalists threw grenades inside.

14 comments:

  1. I just noticed that Munir's story is apparently in the wrong place, closer to where Mletga tried toput it. Again, some 120+ people killed by grenades in a prison can only be this. The ITN headline from pinboy says:
    "More than 120 believed killed by Gaddafi mercenaries in Tripoli's Mansoura district."
    Reporting from Manura, near Bab al Aziziyah, over ten miles from Yarmouk, "What happened here," Hilsum says, "will never be forgotten."

    Oops!

    But why no other hits besides DU when I google even the first half of that title?

    ReplyDelete
  2. "...but believes twenty soldiers and more than a hundred prisoners were killed" (2.40 in the video. Munir El Goula's story as told to Hilsum. No transcription on the web. pinboy3niner has paraphrased Hilsum for DU, hence the google hits.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, made-up headline is my best guess. That makes it not strong enough to run with, unless the video says more along those lines. I'll have to check.

      Channel 4 has nothing. But the PBS posting has a transcript.
      http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/july-dec11/libya_08-25.html

      I just realized I never checked that for spelling, and it says el Goula. Maybe I did check that.

      Delete
    2. Thanks.I hadn't seen the Mates interview with prisoner, and escapee Abdul Hakim Aluse It seemed to remind me of the handling ("interpreter" out of shot) of El-Hitri by Salim. The stories aren't that far apart either,though in allegedly separate locations. Didn't spot that Hilsum transcript.

      Delete
  3. Housefly maggots can hatch within 24 hours if the place where the eggs were laid is warm and moist.
    http://www.uen.org/utahlink/activities/view_activity.cgi?activity_id=1026

    An alternative explanation, however, would be that the rebels massacred their prisoners on Friday evening after the battle and tried to pin the crime on Gadhafi's forces. But on Saturday evening, one of the bodies lying outside was swarming with thousands of tiny maggots, which would be impossible if the man had only been killed the day before.
    http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,783020,00.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Just to confuse things, Abdul Razzak Assari عبد الرزاق الصاري pops up on the What happned at Yarmouk facebook page. The link to ahmaad.wordpress.com shows a photo of a blogger, Jad Assari - جاد الصاري and software expert from Zliten who allgedly disappeared. "some speculated that he was in the group transferred the Yarmouk camp in Tripoli, and was killed a large number of them were brutally at the hands of villains Gaddafi, without the presence of assurances for this story or another." [google translate]
    So Yarmouk is a convenient peg to hang any disappearance, although in this case it is equivocal.
    It is suggested he disappeared in mid August.
    His last tweet was however 3 March 2011 and they suddenly stopped after a torrent of twitter.
    So, perhaps another Nabous.

    Another link leads to a photo of علي الهادي محمد مصباح : Ali Al-Hadi Mohamed Musbah b. Zliten 1979. d. Yarmouk 23 August.(allegedly).
    Another, Masoud Abdulla Masoud Ghazi مسعود عبدالله مسعود غازي - missing at Yarmouk (allegedly) on 19 Ramadan (20 August) after arrest by soldiers (allegedly) on 16 Ramadan (17 August) 2011.
    The only evidence is the upload by facebook member Alsdik Gazi who may be a relative of the latter.

    ReplyDelete
  5. http://lp.medicolibya.com/?page_id=12

    Alzawia St , Central Hospital of Tripoli , Media Office

    a list of 625 missing , not sure they count every Libiyan , or just their heroes

    I'll post some missing on interesting places :

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 159 Abdul Basit Mohammed Mustafa Guenono Agricultural Society
      160 Khalid Mustafa Guenono Agricultural Society
      160 خالد مصطفى قنونو الجمعية الزراعية

      161 محمد عبد السلام ابراهيم ارحومة 40 معتقل صلاح الدين
      161 Mohammed Abdel-Salam Ibrahim Arhomh 40 Detainee Salah al-Din

      194 يوسف القاضى 1980 معسكر خميس خلة الفرجان
      194 Judge Joseph 1980 Camp Thurs trait Al Furjan

      214 وليد ميلاد جنيف معسكر اليرموك
      214 Walid birth of Geneva Yarmouk camp

      241 Sami Mohammed Mansour Alzenouky 1978 Salah al-Din / achter bataljon do vr landbouw
      241 سامى منصور محمد الزنوقى 1978 صلاح الدين /خلف كتيبة خميس جمعة الزراعية

      244 عصام جبران احبيش 32 سجن اليرموك
      244 Essam Gibran Ahbich 32 Yarmouk prison

      293 Naji Atiya Bin Sulaiman 1971 Yarmouk kamp
      293 عطية ناجي بن سليمان 1971 معسكر اليرموك

      306 Osama Abdel Salam Abdullah 19 Camp of Saladin
      306 اسامة عبدالسلام عبدالله 19 معسكر صلاح الدين

      Delete
    2. 264 حاتم حسنى محمد عون بين صلاح الدين وعين زاره 26/8/2011

      264 Hatem Mohammed Hosni Aoun Between the eye and Saladin visited 26/8/2011

      [ Own / Oun ]

      Delete
  6. some names of the shed , & what is meant by camp thuwars?

    هنغر / خلف معسكر خميس = [ Hengr ? ] / behind the camp Thurs

    معسكر خميس خلة الفرجان = Camp Thurs trait Al Furjan

    جمعة الزراعية / خلف معسكر خميس = Agricultural Fri / Thurs behind the camp

    الجمعية الزراعية = Agricultural Society

    صلاح الدين /خلف كتيبة خميس جمعة الزراعية = Salah al-Din / rear battalion [ Thu Fri ] agricultural


    اليرموك = yarmouk
    سجن اليرموك = Yarmouk prison

    صلاح الدين خلف معسكر اليرموك = Behind the camp of Saladin Yarmouk
    معسكر اليرموك = Yarmouk camp

    صلاح الدين = Salah al-Din
    معسكر صلاح الدين = Camp of Saladin

    خلة الفرجان = Trait Al Furjan

    ReplyDelete
  7. 342 محمد حميد محمد خليفة اليرموك 23 صلاح الدين خلف معسكر
    342 Mohammed Hamid Mohammed Khalifa 23 Behind the camp of Saladin Yarmouk

    344 هيثم جمعة محمد الحجاجي 26 معسكر اليرموك
    344 Haitham Juma Mohammed Al-Hajjaji 26 Yarmouk kamp

    350 سامي منصور محمد الذنوني 1977 هنغر / خلف معسكر خميس
    350 Sami Mohammed Mansour Alznona 1977 Hengr / behind the camp Thurs

    353 رجب مسعود مصباح علي 41 صلاح الدين
    353 Rajab Ali Massoud lamp 41 Salah al-Din

    363 عبدالله ضو الغولة 25 جمعة الزراعية / خلف معسكر خميس
    363 Abdullah Daou Ogress 25 Agricultural Fri / Thurs behind the camp

    371 نضال نصر عبد 18 خلة الفرجان
    371 Nidal Nasser Abdel 18 Trait Al Furjan

    435 محمد مفتاح علي حمودة 33 سجن اليرموك 14/8
    435 Muhammad Ali Hamouda key 33 Yarmouk prison 14/8

    437 spring of 1987 the birth of Mohammed thick Yarmouk camp
    437 ربيع ميلاد محمد الغليظ 1987 معسكر اليرموك

    523 Abdul Razak Ali Massoud lamp 22 Salah al-Din
    523 عبدالرزاق مسعود مصباح علي 22 صلاح الدين

    582 Mohammed M'Hamed Aobeid Yarmouk kamp
    582 محمد امحمد اعبيد Yarmouk kamp

    ReplyDelete
  8. http://lp.medicolibya.com/?page_id=14
    Name changed In 2012 :

    National Transitional Council - Libya. Executive Office. Department of Health Affairs
    Department of Information and Documentation. Tripoli Central Hospital

    المجلس الوطني الإنتقالي - ليبيا. المكتب التنفيذي. إدارة الشئون الصحية
    قسم الاعلام والتوثيق. مســـتـــشــــفي طـــرابـــلـــس المـــــركــــزي

    ReplyDelete
  9. a familiair name, but missing on another place :

    552 Favor of the birth of Salem Ferjani 53 Tajoura
    552 صالح ميلاد سالم الفرجاني 53 Tajoura

    ReplyDelete
  10. martyr list

    363 Abdullah Daou Ogress 25 Juma agricultural / behind camp Khamis ♦

    I think he is missing from a mosque
    *

    name mosque : جمعة الزراعية

    عبدالله ضو الغولة 25 جمعة الزراعية / خلف معسكر خميس ♦

    ReplyDelete

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