New Shed Massacre Video!

April 18, 2012
last update May 5

<< The Khamis Brigade Shed Massacre After all the material we've been over regarding the Khamis Brigade shed massacre, we still haven't seen it all. Just now Felix alerted me to this Rebel amateur video that predates all others and has whole bloody clues the others lack.

ثوار الهضبة يدخلون كتيبة خميس ليكتشفوا المجزرة

Posted by Batruna August 29, 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF_yCX5ffCc


Word for word title translation, proper order: Rebels the plateau entering battalion Khamis to discover the massacre. More intelligible: Rebels (of?) al-Hadhbah (road, on which the Yarmouk base sits?) enter the Base (Katiba) of Khamis to discover the massacre. These people look kind of like locals, possibly rebel fighters, but not armed at the moment. Neither do they seem nervous about remaining loyalists. It might've been in rebel hands for a day or longer prior to this. It was apparently filmed shortly after sunset (about 7:45 to maybe 8pm) on Friday, August 26. We had previously seen no video or photos or anything from that day. Rebels claim it was the first day, sometime at night, or even the next morning, when they first held the base and could enter. In actuality the video could be from one of the days prior even to that, but I find that unlikely. What matters are the various obvious clues it can't be the dates we've looked at before.

The red thing (gas can?) isn't under the ladder yet, something that happened 10-11 am on the 27th (see Exterior imagery chronology).

Of note is the open fire flaming away in the side-chamber, seen in the first seconds and again at 1:00. One thing to note is that these are rebels not handling weapons, or rebel-affiliated locals - ostensibly good people. They just found ostensible victims of a Gaddafi massacre, horrifically set alight, and still burning. No one seems interested in putting them out. Open flames in the main chamber are over by this time. The total darkness inside testifies to that, but doesn't give us much view of what the smoke was doing (an issue of great interest examined here)

There are three dead bodies laying about that weren't there later. Well, they were all seen once more, a bit later, in three photos by Seamus Murphy/VII images, but then gone. A body laid just outside, between the main and side chamber doors seems to have died while crawling. The sand around him and along his path looks pink. By his apparent light skin and clothing, he's the left victim of the two laid out on a truck bed the following morning, as seen in this photo.

The body on the right, extremely bloodied and wearing a Shalwar Khameez, is apparently also seen in this video. I thought he was black, but perhaps not (is that a hint of pink, as well as red, where his face would be?) What must be his body is shown out in the middle of the dusty yard at 1:26, face-down, one shoe nearby.

The other body, burned face, extremely bloodied, shown being dragged from one truck to another here and here, is shown at 0:35 inside the truck he's later pulled from, face down in a pool of blood. His right arm looks tortured. More on this poor guy later...

The mattress victims are also shown, about as later, at 1:09. The bound-feet victim is sporting a longer stretch of green rope than we've seen, and a lot of things in their area are arranged differently. There is a splash of fresh-looking blood (?) next to the broomstick that I don't think is visible later. Much of the graffiti is there already. This often accompanies rebel orgies of bloodletting.

April 19: The green truck is noteworthy, not there earlier than this or later. It's got capacity, possible refrigeration, and might do for transporting bodies. The company doesn't probably matter much, but any Libyans recognize the logo and what that company's known to ship? Cold things?

Petri, in comments, was saying this is the most significant new clue. I thought maybe until just now. When I re-number and re-organize the dead outside the shed, the body I'll have a #1is the ugly burnt face one. Some real insane Gaddafi brutality was done to that guy. Again, I've said he was black, and I still say the hair suggests, actually a mixed-race person with some African blood. Perhaps too light to pass for "mercenary." The slight overweight to me suggests an middle-aged man, so perhaps a commander at the base, stripped to his undershirt. He had special treatment - the video shows him in a pool of blood, soaked around the neck area (slit throat?), right arm splayed out, looking discolored and twisted, likely tortured, forearm cut just below the elbow perhaps. The skin of his left shoulder, seen in the morning, besides varying from burnt raw to toasted dry, also also suggests serious bruising beneath. This guy was beaten all about, it seems.

Below a before and after.

I've enhanced two stills of different exposure to show what this video best can, left. I tried "levels" to salvage some details in the dark, but there wasn't much to save, sorry. This is before, late on August 26. To the right is the same body the next morning. What seems to be lacking theday before is a burnt face and neck. Cheeks look smooth and normal color. Shoulder looks normal. Next morning his shoulders were burnt and cracked in an odd way, and his face rendered lobster-red and crusted charcoal gray with bits of boiled-out eyes. I think we can say he probably didn't die from that, blessedly. But it looks like he might've been "necklaced" with a burning tire around his head. He'd have to be propped upright, and the truck should have smoke stains after...  Note the slit throat - bottom middle - this might have been done to obscure (but it failed)

Clearly, the rebels were in charge of his body when this apparently happened.

More stills and notes:

The fire burning still in the side-chamber. Foreground, outside victim #1, the crawler.

Man with a pick walks by, coming from the direction of the toppled wall around outside victim #7. Is there white powder from those pulled down bricks on the pick? What was that all about anyway? (green "Star" refrigerated truck visible)

A gathering of men in the compound's southwest corner. Note the yellow-sided rebel fighter truck (Misratan?). As the camera approaches, they end the discussion and start dispersing.

The shed interior, main chamber, yields little. There is no visible smoke rising even in the fornt portion we can see, when there would be in the morning. It's just not good enough resolution to be sure they're done smoldering here. We can see two skulls near the front. On the right, up against the wheel rim, is body #15, according to my previous, intensive, mapping of the dead (article, graphic alone). By that, there is no skull in the left position in later images. This appears also to be attached to a body, perhaps the one I numbered 11, which was, coincidentally, filmed by Sky News only (that I've noticed) and removed for all later views. But it would have to be flipped around. Or it's another body by #11, making at least two from right there, obstructing the media's left-hand walkway, that were removed.