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Sunday, October 23, 2011

The Sirte Massacres: 42 Bodies by Muttassim's House

October 20, 2011
last edits Oct. 25

<< The Sirte Massacres

First Views
This story emerged along with the alleged capture of one of colonel Gaddafi's more prominent sons and national security adviser, Muttassim, who's been talking tough and keeping Sirte resistant for a while now. It was for real this time, the NTC said; they finally did capture a Gaddafi family member and Sirte should just give up now. There were celebrations with gunfire, but no proof, then back-tracking on the claim, a loyalist surge, a rebel retreat, a renewed rebel push, renewed NATO strikes...

Anyway, the victories may be largely fake (for both sides), but the brutality is real. CNN had Dan Rivers there to report (a Youtube posting). His crew filmed a number of bound and executed men piled next to a wall (see image below), and explained "on the outskirts of Sirte, we find evidence of atrocities. Here, a dozen bodies bound and some apparently shot in the head. It's not clear who murdered these men or whether they were civilians or fighters, but they were certainly wearing civilian clothes [transcript]." The rebel fighters shown elsewhere in the video tend, these days, to wear some part professional camouflage, with only some in purely civilian attire. A rebel-affiliated "hospital official" named Abdullah al-Manghoosh told CNN:
We're here to check. We don't know what happened. We don't know the story. But clearly they [the victims?] are revolutionary fighters.
It's not clear who they are. They were captives, bound with plastic ties, piled helter-skelter, mostly face down. Rivers counted twelve bodies here, and that seems about right. They look a bit like the victims of uncontrolled rebel barbarians, except for being primarily light-skinned Arabs for once.

There is a large patch of black fluid on the wall near one victim's head would seem to be blood. I saturated the color to see if there's any there, but the black stays black, no hint of red. So I'm not certain it's what it look like, but it might well be days-dried blood. The close-ups show flies but no maggots. To me that suggests they've been dead no more than approximately three days. A photo I found shows flies, bloating of one victim, and the strange posture some of them are in, legs splayed like frogs. It's not really clear if the one in the red "8" shirt still has a head. 

About five more bodies were also filmed by CNN nearby, more scattered in the open, mostly covered with blankets. The three whose pigmentation can be discerned (on the left here) seem to be black.

Tracey Shelton photo, Global Post
It's not clear at all the above are really at the main location we'll be considering. But until I figure out whether or how to split that off, it remains and we turn to the bodies found around Muttassim Gaddafi's compound.

Global Post has a great photo, from October 12 also, of yet another seven bodies laying in the dirt near another wall at another location that a reader was able to locate (see below). They too have hands bound, shoes removed, laid mostly face-down. At least two are definitely black, and one (the fat or bloated one, who's apparently bearded as well) are definitely not.

From the apparent dampness of their clothes and the mud on them, I'd say they were killed somewhere wetter, like any flooded street of Sirte, and have been laying in the sun here for 24-36 hours at most. Unless it rained lightly overnight, I suppose (the weather can be checked anywhere, usually. It's on my to-do list). 

Supporting a dump, I don't see any large patches of blood here. But so far, I'm not seeing a whole lot at all of the things one would need to see (the same close-ups the news doesn't like to show) to be more sure. The CBC (Canada) however had a reporter up-close to what might be this batch of victims, and said they weren't always laid out side-by-side like this.
At one site, seven bodies lie on patches of burnt grass, four of them on top of each other, as if they had been dumped there. The corpses are sprayed with what look like bullet wounds.
Well, sprayed with bullets anyway. I don't see burnt grass here, but otherwise it's a possible match.

Rebel Details
The article at Global Post accompanying the above photo gives much detail, and mentions quite a few dead bodies - several dozen - appearing in areas the rebels had taken in fighting. And then it strangely closed with "during the conflict, 75 were injured and 6 killed." They must mean rebels injured and killed in the day of battle observed, ignoring loyalist deaths, and considering all others killed as executed by loyalists prior to the battle. Let's tally the pre-liberation crime spree then, starting with this article's treatment of the bodies shown above, together with several others in a certain, very convenient spot:
As fighters for the transitional government advanced into inner Sirte today 42 bodies — beaten, bound and executed – were found on what a local man identified as the property of Gaddafi’s son Moutism.
[...]
The bodies were discovered in four locations in the fields behind Moutism’s [last known, allegd] home. Two groups lay along a concrete fence, appearing as if they had been lined up and executed. Another group lay scattered in a field among cattle. Rebel fighters held their noses against the smell, and looked at the bodies with anger, sadness and disgust.

“There are 42 bodies,” said volunteer medic Nabeel Alghoail, as he checked the bodies from the first location with a team of four. “All have been shot many times. They are all civilians.”
I thought they were clearly "revolutionary fighters?" The article continues:
All were men and appeared to be aged between 20 and 40. They were bound at the wrists with plastic ties. Yusef Haddaga was among the group who discovered the bodies. “We were moving through at around 2 p.m. when we found the bodies lying here like this,” he said.

Haddaga said he recognized one of the men as an engineer from Misrata. Others said they believed the men to be prisoners captured by Gaddafi troops several months before, but no positive identification has been made at this time.
What they say, with words out of their mouths, can't be trusted in a case like this. And further, it's not clear how we can know that five days ago Muttasim's people, but not the rebels, had access to the area (or can we? see below). They've been pushing into various districts for weeks now. And further, loyalist leaders are likely moving from any known homes, like this one where bodies were found, to new undisclosed places, perhaps underground.  

The Canadian CBC also writes on these 42 victims - one for each year of Gaddafi's rule, by the way:
Many of them seem to be prisoners from Sirte's jail. "See their hands. Their hands are tied behind their back," Lt. Hussein Abdelsalam said through a translator as he showed the sites to a reporter.
How's that for sleuthing? Plastic handcuffs can only come from a Gaddafi jail now. A rebel doctor again gave the usual story: killed by the bad guys, and before the good guys got here (we'll be able to check that somewhat, below), and again, they're having a hard time attaching the bodies to acceptable identities.
Abdul Rauf, a doctor who sides with the revolutionary forces, said he examined some of the dead and thinks they were probably killed by Gadhafi loyalists last weekend [Oct 7-9], as NTC troops launched their all-out assault to finally capture Sirte.
[...]
Rauf said the bodies are hard to identify because they're now swollen. The ongoing hostilities have made it difficult for coroners or pathologists to attend to them. [... however ...] "I think that they were people which they held, and when our fighters reached there, like it's the last chance: Just kill them and run away. Just don't leave them to tell the story," Rauf said. "It's like that. You want to kill the story with them."
The First Survivor
But the diminishing Gaddafi regime isn't very good anymore at killing stories - not even fake ones. The CBC continued on to speak with an alleged convenient survivor who gave the "inside story"on how these deaths came to be.
Anis Farej, who was detained for nearly a month in the Sirte jail, said he believes the bodies are his fellow prisoners, though he could only recognize and name a few of them. One was Abdullah Ferjani, Farel said, a sheik from Sirte who was arrested because of his anti-Gadhafi stance.
And the Telegraph also covers the 42 and speaks with the same self-described survivor, who hints at four other ecapees, presumably to emerge now ala the Khamis Brigade shed massacre:
Anis Faraj, 22, told The Sunday Telegraph: "They are not bothering to put them in prison any more. If they think you are against Gaddafi they kill you." Mr Faraj said described how suspected revolutionary sympathisers had been taken from their cells and shot dead last week - a fate which he only narrowly escaped himself.
[...]
Mr Faraj said he had been thrown into prison last month after Gaddafi loyalist volunteers found him shirking military service by hiding with family members in the nearby district of Abu Hadi. For three weeks, he and 47 other men [sic] were crammed into the small dungeon like cells inside Sirte police station. Last week, he said, as interim government forces advanced on the area, guards had come to the men and told them that Col Gaddafi's son Mutassim, who is said to be directing defence of the enclave, "wanted the disloyal rats from the prison".


"They lined us up, all 47 men outside with our back to four armed guards," he said. "They shot their weapons around our feet, and tied our hands with zip ties." As the prisoners were bundled into pickup trucks and led away, Mr Faraj was saved by a guard who recognised him as a colleague from Misrata airbase where he had previously served, before defecting.
"He took me to his house, gave me a Kalashnikov and told me to continue the hunt for the 'rats' with them," said Mr Faraj, who eventually escaped across the front line. "They are hunting down men inside their district, and anyone who does not support them is taken away. Soldiers I was with spoke of taking opposition members to the beachfront to kill them."
That's an unusual escape story, compelling enough in its way. And for the doubters, the same man was able to identify the dead from videos, like we've seen, as his fellow revolutionary cell-mates.
Doctors who first examined the bodies of Mr Faraj's fellow prisoners counted a total of 42 men dead, some of whom Mr Faraj identified from a video recording the discovery as his former cellmates. Their wrists were bound in the way he described. Lieutenant Col. Hassan Ali of the interim government's Gabra brigade, who found the bodies, said: "There are other corpses further in. We can see them through cracks in the wall but we cannot reach them as there are too many snipers."
More Visuals and a Partial Location
Al Arabiyah filmed the victims as well, in the very low resolution image at right. I first thought it referred to the "Dollar neighborhood." But then I was alerted, by reader Petri Krohn, of Twitter reports from Rasmus Tantholdt, International Correspondent of TV2 Denmark. These spoke, on October 12, of "7 handcuffed bodies" and three more nearby "burned with tires around them." In a video report for Dutch channel Nyhederne, Tantholdt's crew gave different views in good resolution (see below) showing it's the same spot as seen in the Global Post photo above, piled next to a partly collapsed cinderblock wall.


Between the different views, I think five or even six of these seven "revolutionary fighters" look more like the standard "African mercenary" than anything else. The Nyhederne video gives enough surrounding footage to feel out the scene. The missing sections of wall could be knocked out for defensive sniper positions or blown out by a rebel RPG from the south aiming for such. There's also some sort of cargo trailer nearby, leaned up on concrete rubble, possibly another defensive improvisation against invaders coming from the south.


From the Nyhederne video
The details seen made it possible to start locating a spot in satellite imagery. The video shows a large, open dirt area enclosed by low walls nearly meeting at right angles at the northeast corner. On the other side of one is a high-walled compound with a curved corner, and large trees in the distance to the south. And near the other, partly collapsed wall where the victims were piled, is a small square building with nothing else around (visible at right).

Before I even set to considering where the sun is coming from, Petri Krohn found the location, sharing a handy link I didn't know you could do. It's on the western side of town, not much over a kilometer from city center, yet surrounded by small farms. That's Libya. By this finding, which I'm fairly confident in, the curved wall runs north-south and encloses a rather fancy, if not large, house with a well-planned yard and long, narrow garden of palm trees. It looks arguably royal, like a place someone suave like Muttassim would live. There's also a possible upscale residence at least as big, well-walled and landscaped, just on the south side of this enormous walled yard (200m square).

In the image below, the lower rightblow-up has the curved wall and the small square building indicated, as well as the victims' location (in red). We can see how it might be a convenient drop point for anyone in control of the area, a stupid place for Muttassim to have ordered executions carried out, and a fine spot to display the defenders on this compound after its capture.


I've scanned around a bit for a location for the CNN views of the other 17 or so bodies. I don't think it's at the same locale described above. The wall that 12 are piled next to doesn't seem to be around there, but then again, it looks fairly new, as does the earth around it. So the existing imagery, a few years old usually, may not show it.

But the four or five bodies they filmed in a field might be nearby, and locatable. If I'm reading the sun right in the image above, it's afternoon and the fighter's shadow points somewhere roughly northeast. We have another large field, a wall with decent-sized buildings on the other side running to the east. And the zoom-in below shows in the near distance, to the north, built-up city area. Between seems treed, absent any tall buildings, and perhaps dipping down. Palms are visible on the right. Note the odd building visible at the left-hand skyline - curved or unusually angled and shiny, it seems. One of the ring-shaped apartment blocks north of the area we're looking at?




Battle Lines 
The scene is continuing to come together, visually and in terms of basic facts. See comments below for a preview of the updates coming. Most important for now is what the narrowed-down location of the seven means. The images below compare the compound Petri found with a Wikipedia graphic of rebel holdings in Sirte as of October 10, and an image from the Guardian, showing the front on various dates. I lined them all up and got this:

The compound is in the green square relative to the background map. It's within rebel-held territory on the 10th (pink). The faint white lightning-bolt line marks the western front on October 4, with that west of the line rebel-held. I suspect it's mistaken on the rebels controlling half of the fiercely resistant district two by then, since they apparently still didn't six days later. But they were apparently telling people that. The less built-up areas, like the one in question, make more sense to be under their control that early.

Either way, what this means is that the rebels are square in the picture, despite how they framed it. The bodies seem to be no more than two or maybe three days old. They were killed on-site, NTC forces and a survivor said, by Muttassim's men. They were killed by these people at this place as long as a week after the rebels had taken it. That's what they're telling us anyway, in parts and at different points, with apparently little attention to how their story lines up.

Burnt Victims in the Back
Petri alerts me further the charred skeleton, and signs of others burned, fimed by Tantholdt's crew are on this same premises, and separate from the burned and/or run-over bodies in nearby Hay al Dollar. It's just a few yards north, amongs the few small out-buildings set behind the wall the seven are lined up against. A red cargo container shown in the satellite images, near a mound of earth, is also shown in the video. They open it and show the camera the inside, with air holes shot into it like they say Gaddafi's people do for their prisoners (except sometimes).

Below is what seems to be one of these bodies, a little more burnt than I expected. The reports from Tantholdt said three bodies were burnt, but this is the only one we're shown. The posture suggests the victim struggled as he burned. The feet seem fairly intact. The missing flesh on the lower left leg, down to the ankle is odd. Predation of the meat left less over-cooked?

We hear that 42 bodies were found at four spots around the compound. How many of CNN's victims might be at this area is unclear, but we've seen 23 or 24 bodies in three spots aside from this. Only seven are confirmed here, 4/5 I think are clearly elsewhere, and 12 possibly here but likely elsewhere. This suggests we've only seen eight of the 42 victims at Muttassim's compound, counting this one. One wonders why.

Tantholdt further tweeted that these three burned captives had "tires around them." This could mean discarded nearby, or actually around their necks, suggesting the execution method called necklacing. Used famously in South Africa, it has a gasoline-soaked tire placed around a captive's head and lit-up, until they die from the random heat trauma to the face and head.  We don't see this in the video. Only the one corpse is shown here, apparently tire free at time of filming, though the rebels seem to be pointing like bird-dogs to more further north. 

But in the image at left we see a spot some bodies apparently had been burnt. Weird remains are in the foreground - a mesh of reddish fiber, curved metal bands, a large lump of black material. The last could be melted rubber or human tissue of several kinds.  

There are also recognizable bone fragments, arm or maybe leg, suggesting a very hot fire and possibly severe bodily damage prior to burning. It is right on a road. More victims run-over and burnt? There's also visible here a black ooze on the right edge of the burn zone. That's not good. Did the road's dust mingle just with a thick flammable fluid, or also with human juices and melted fat?

As for the skeleton shown above, note that it has a rope or cable attached to the right leg. As shown, it's not attached to anything else, but looks like it could have been tied to that cinder block about two feet away. It could be the same fiber material we see at left. Cinder blocks are missing from the wall the other victims were at. That's not heavy enough to pin down a full-grown man, obviously, but perhaps they had first set something heavy upon it, like the pulled-out refrigerator-looking thing in the background (far left).

Racial Makeup
Further, we should note the race of the victims. The bodies CNN showed were largely Arab, but of the ones we can verify are at Muttassim's place, we have this: 5 or 6 of the seven whose skin is visible are apparently black. Of the  of the others, the one is charred, unreadable - a rebel sympathizer like all, they say, but they've been wrong in the past on charred victims (the first ones were called disloyal soldiers, but were actually captured Chadian workers, black men, burned alive by the rebels). The possibility here of necklacing, the cruel African-style punishment, suggests indirectly these victims too may have been black folk, with race erased by the flame.

Only the pale, bloated, apparently bearded victim by the wall clearly shakes up this mini-trend. The remainder of the 42 we apparently don't see, and again, one should wonder why.

Again as at bab-al Aziziyah, and the hospital in Abu Salim, in Qawalish, and probably in Tawergha, the "fleeing Gaddafi rats" show their penchant for killing primarily black-skinned rebels, who by all evidence make up a very small portion of their racist organizations. And again as usual, the Gaddafi clowns leave the proof of their racist cruelty right at places they were "known" to be in control of at the time, with no attempt at hiding their stupid, stupid work.

26 comments:

  1. The three burnt bodies on Tantholdt's video are also in this same location, some 15 meters north, on the other side of the run-down hut.

    The red shipping container seen on the video is also visible on the Google Maps satellite image. The is a theoretical possibility that it has been used to house captives by Mutasim & co. Unfortunately the Tantholdt video does not let us peek inside for signs of habitation.

    One more feature that confirms the location is a small glimpse of the red roof of "Mutasim's house" on some of the media I have seen, with its distinctive 45 degree angle. (Could not relocate the footage now.)

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  2. The "authoritative" source for the location of the front line should be the maps on Wikipedia. Theoretically they reflect what the "reliable" Western media is reporting from location.

    This map has been updated multiple times to reflect the situation:
    File:2011 Battle of Sirte.svg
    http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2011_Battle_of_Sirte.svg

    This version of the map dated 13:10 (GMT?) on 10 October 2011 shows Mutasim's house just inside rebel held territory.
    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/7/7d/20111012202638%212011_Battle_of_Sirte.svg

    It may be, that the Western media and their Western readers editing Wikipedia have been cutting corners. The news on October 12th on Mutasim's capture may in fact have referred to the capture of his house in Sirte.

    If I may make a wild guess on the identities of the victims, it may be they were the people found inside Mutasim's compound when it was captured by rebels.

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  3. Still no retraction that Muammar was killed. I don't feel like posting on it.

    On the usual, I'll check out the imagery where the burnt people are. But I thought that was a different area, Hay al Dollar. According to this map from the Guardian, that's not far away, about city center.
    http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/10/12/1318413484918/Sirtemap.jpg
    I see the Wiki map roughly agrees,putting it on the SW corner of the middle.

    On the numbers, we have reported 42 bodies in four locations. We've seen three spots with 12, app.5, and seven bodies. That's app. 24, meaning app. 18 should be in the remaining one area. Should be considered. And why didn't we get to see the big dump? Something wrong with it? Too gruesome, too black?

    The battle lines are important. The map I show here agrees putting the area in question under rebel control well before these bodies were found. In fact, it's outside town enough that map says they held it by Oct.4. So when bodies at most three days old, probably two or less, appear there on Oct.12... and again, mostly black...

    If the house was taken only on the 12th, that would mean it was defended and held out for some days. So your guess as to who these people are is a good one.

    Wish I had more time...

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  4. I don'tfeelup to completing an update tonight,but I had a look,and you are really good, Petri. The whole scene continues to pan out from scanning the video,and even the little shed with the burned guy is apparently in that nook. This means ... I may be confused if CNN's bodies were partof the 42, or what, as to how the four dump spots line up. I can see the house inside the walls, the pillars on the square place, the buildings across the field. One thing I see in the overhead is a second, even fancier house, just south of thiis spot, next to it. Both mansion ares might've been connected, with the smaller perhaps a guest house. That'd make this lot a private connected one, most likely, and the road connecting them a Gaddafi family private road.

    On the burnt guy, and the others we haven't seen... Those with tires around them at Hay al Dollar, I was wondering if they'd been "collared" like in S. Africa. There's shredded, black, and metal-band debris in the foreground. Tire remnants, maybe? There's a black ooze around the left edge of the burn zone. That's not good. Thick flammable fluid, or melted human fat?

    As for the skeleton shown, it has a rope or cable attached to the right leg looks like. Not attached to anything else, but looks like it could have been tied to that cinder block. Cinder blocks are missing from the wall the other victims were at. Etc.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hay Al-Dollar rings a bell owing to the very recent death there of a prominent Australian Muslim leader from Sydney who travelled to Libya in February where his wife had and family had been "on holiday" since last July.
    Family confirms Sydney Man killed in Libya But it is a Sydney cousin, not the family in Libya who confirms this.
    "Mr [Hassan] Enbaiwa [relative] says Sheikh Zuway had been helping people get aid.

    "He's killed inside Sirte in a suburb named Hay al Dollar," he said.

    "He was helping the people who have problems to get medical help and take these people to hospital because he has an idea about this job."

    Speaking on behalf of the sheikh's extended family, Keysar Trad [Islamic Friendship Association of Australia] says it is still unclear exactly what he was doing in Sirte when he was killed.


    This report states that he had spent time in the UK and there is shaky YouTube footage to show he had died,in a grieving scene in a shroud accompanied by someone pacing around in military fatigues, uploaded on 18 October by MuslimVillageMedia (Australia),the day after he allegedly died, cause unknown,but allegedly killed by "Gadaffi loyalists".
    From The World Today, ABC (Australia) KEYSAR TRAD: Look he was with the resistance with the National Transitional Council. He's very close friends with the leadership of that transitional council and I don't know the extent of the duties that were allocated to him.

    He may well have been defending people with arms but we don't know at this stage the extent of that.


    All very strange.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Just a bit more about the sheikh from Libya news and views:
    Monday, 5 May, 2003: For Naser al-Zuway, a refugee from Libya who now lives in Cabramatta, Australia, and is struggling to find work, life just doesn't seem to be getting any easier. The 32-year-old fled Libya in 1995 after he was thrown out of university for his pro-democracy political activities. Many of his friends who had also been vocal in their opposition to the suppressive Libyan regime were arrested. So, too, was his own father when authorities came searching for the young engineering student but could not find him in the family home. So Mr Zuway paid a people smuggler $15,000, and came to Australia in 1998. After one failed attempt at deporting Mr Zuway to Libya - he ate the first page of his passport to stop being sent back - he was granted permanent status as a refugee, with some help from Amnesty International.

    Even odder - on page 61 of the document Taking Action Human Rights and Refugee Issues Teaching Resource (foundationaction.org), we read this piece:

    Naser Zuway was a university student in Libya. One day he attended a lecture
    about freedom of speech by a professor at his university. A few days later police
    came to the houses of the students who had attended this lecture and arrested them. Naser
    heard that this was happening and managed to escape. (Amnesty International Australia
    2003)

    The photo shows a young black lad.

    More here from Green Left, Sydney 29 March 2000:
    "Naser Zuway told the conference of his own experience inside the Villawood detention centre in western Sydney, which he described as "draconian". Zuway fled Libya, where he feared political persecution, and finally arrived in Australia after stays in Egypt, Jordan and Syria. He did not expect to be placed in a prison on his arrival simply because he didn't have the proper papers. See also here, Land of plenty offers little for work-willing refugee

    By Cynthia Banham
    May 5 2003

    Interestingly, the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia was about to present a prize to Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi,the Champion of Cultural Inclusion prize for 2011,nominated by Australian Libyans..

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hay Al-Dollar rings a bell owing to the very recent death there of a prominent Australian Muslim leader from Sydney who travelled to Libya in February where his wife had and family had been "on holiday" since last July.
    Get ready to copy and paste again,will have a post on that. I got the name from your other comment, and checked.Google translate pronounces "neighborhood in Arabic as "Haya," so whatever dollar means,same place. On the Sheikh... nothing to add. Definitely an odd story I'll include in the post.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Do you know right from wrong...excellent final header for this dirty brutal war...

    http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/10/24/libya-apparent-execution-53-gaddafi-supporters
    Libya: Apparent Execution of 53 Gaddafi Supporters
    “This latest massacre seems part of a trend of killings, looting, and other abuses committed by armed anti-Gaddafi fighters who consider themselves above the law,”

    It's funny when they pretend they never noticed we're dealing with pretty much an out of control lynch mob, although it is a lynch mob that enjoyed total immunity and the best PR one can imagine since day one...

    ReplyDelete
  9. Did you already see this?

    Human Rights Watch:

    Libya: Apparent Execution of 53 Gaddafi Supporters

    Bodies Found at Sirte Hotel Used by Anti-Gaddafi Fighters.
    OCTOBER 24, 2011

    Fifty-three people, apparent Gaddafi supporters, seem to have been executed at a hotel in Sirte last week, Human Rights Watch said today. The hotel is in an area of the city that was under the control of anti-Gaddafi fighters from Misrata before the killings took place.

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  10. The Mahari Hotel in Sirte is located some 3km west of district number 2 and some 600m west of the western roundabout. The distinctive 45 degree entrance as seen in the HRW photo is here on Google maps.

    http://g.co/maps/swq6w

    ReplyDelete
  11. Well gosh, guess I've heard about it now. :) Slaughterhouse5, sorry, it had you tagged as spam for no clear reason. I presume the second post was a repeat and approved the one. This is a new type of turn, and I'll certainly have a look and add it soon.

    ReplyDelete
  12. No problem, i was wondering if i didn't submit my comment correctly for some reason, cause it kept disappearing.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Postscript about the strange case of Sheikh Naser Zuway from Australia, in this Australian TV clip
    "We're at the stage where we don't have full details.." - Julia Gillard Australian PM.
    "It's still unclear exactly what he was doing in Sirte when he was killed..."- Emma Hannigan, SBS World News Australia. (Special Broadcasting Service)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Abdul Rauf, a doctor who sides with the revolutionary forces, said he examined some of the dead and thinks they were probably killed by Gadhafi loyalists last weekend [Oct 7-9], as NTC troops launched their all-out assault to finally capture Sirte.:


    http://projects.nytimes.com/guantanamo/detainees/709-abdul-rauf-omar-mohammed-abu-al-qusin
    Abdul Rauf Omar Mohamed

    *
    Oct 16, 2011 'Like it's the last chance: Just kill them and run away. Just don't leave them to tell the story'—Doctor Abdul Rauf
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/10/16/libya-sirte-massacred-bodies.html

    21 October 2011 ‘They broke out just as we were waking up to pray,’ said Dr Abdul Rauf Mohammad, who was among the NTC troops.
    *
    13 Jun 2011 On the southern front of Abdul Rauf, the rebels were able to capture 10 Gadhafi forces and a few vehicles after an ambush was set for them, he said.
    http://www.citifmonline.com/mobile/index.php?id=1.423441

    ReplyDelete
  15. Here in Surt, the state of decomposition of the 42 bodies first found at the site indicated that the men had been killed before anti-Kadafi forces moved in, said Dr. Abdul Rauf bin Yousef, a doctor who examined the corpses.

    http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/16/world/la-fg-libya-killings-20111017

    Some of the bodies were removed before journalists arrived.

    Beheaded ones?

    ReplyDelete
  16. martyr 14 october 2011 Dou Abdullah Abdullah Saeed Gamaty



    http://i42.tinypic.com/978r2t.jpg
    manchester man in background entering sirte
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDw79_ICZaY


    another witness of the massacre mahari

    http://i39.tinypic.com/301oj15.jpg
    http://i39.tinypic.com/24lj85k.jpg


    *

    present at the massacre of 29 detainees :

    http://i41.tinypic.com/m7bby0.jpg

    Ibrahim Mlitane Misrati, accused of killing several Libyans in Sirte at the outbreak of the plot against Kadhafi.

    He was the person who gave informations to the Nato-intelligence about Moatassem Gaddafi.
    http://libyanfreepress.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/ibrahim-mlitane-misrati.jpg?w=500




    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. another witness of the massacre mahari

      http://i39.tinypic.com/301oj15.jpg
      http://i39.tinypic.com/24lj85k.jpg

      looks a lot like the egyptian mercenary/murderer @ 1.15

      http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=632517?rss

      Delete
    2. http://i40.tinypic.com/nvy8h.jpg

      http://i42.tinypic.com/2hmeyhf.jpg



      http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VoDh2_DHd_Q/UT8LMLfKiQI/AAAAAAAAA8o/As1Qu4V96rQ/s1600/%D9%87%D8%B0%D9%87+%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A9+%D9%84%D9%82%D8%AA%D9%84%D9%89+%D9%85%D9%86+%D9%85%D8%A4%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A+%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%B0%D8%A7%D9%81%D9%8A.png


      http://i41.tinypic.com/28vggp2.jpg

      same guy?
      http://i42.tinypic.com/27wzssy.jpg

      https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=710366732326028&set=a.336855419677163.93125.336851666344205&type=1&theater

      Delete
  17. if the date 14 october 2011 is correct then the question rises :

    were there TWO MAHARI MASSACRES?
    175 people captured Sirte :

    http://i50.tinypic.com/dwq5hk.jpg

    http://i46.tinypic.com/1ovk1l.jpg

    http://i45.tinypic.com/2j4opcy.jpg

    http://i45.tinypic.com/2lmpi5y.jpg

    http://i50.tinypic.com/2m4q8i9.jpg


    http://i42.tinypic.com/978r2t.jpg


    man on the front of the pic entering sirte
    http://i45.tinypic.com/egd5ip.jpg

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDw79_ICZaY

    *


    An HRW team on the ground counted that 103 pro-Gaddafi supporters died during that escape.
    Half of those were killed by NATO bombings, and the other half was either killed in combat or executed.

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=720537221293995&set=a.536936526320733.134959.534331456581240&type=1&theater

    On top of that, 140 Gaddafi loyalists were taken prisoner, but instead of being transferred to prison authorities, 66 of them were executed in a nearby hotel.

    http://rt.com/news/libya-gaddafi-execution-hrw-608/

    ReplyDelete
  18. Many of them seem to be prisoners from Sirte's jail. "See their hands. Their hands are tied behind their back," Lt. Hussein Abdelsalam said through a translator as he showed the sites to a reporter.


    I am back in Misrata - just been in #Sirte - send me ur questions #skylibya I'll be answering ? till internet goes down in half an hour
    by alex rossi via twitter edited by tim.hewage 10/13/2011 9:56:46 AM
    http://live-news.sky.com/Event/Battle_For_Sirte_Ask_Skys_Correspondent?Page=0

    @blakehounshell good ?. Fighters said caught in #Sirte but no confirmation from #Benghazi where supposed to have been taken #Skylibya
    by alex rossi via twitter 10/13/2011 9:59:57 AM

    RT @AbiOfarim: @alexrossiSKY How do NTC fighters treat refugees who are openly pro-Gaddafi? Any stories of reprisals or harrassment?
    by alex rossi via twitter 10/13/2011 10:01:20 AM

    .@AbiOfarim I visited one jail - appeared well run but many prisoners told me they'd been beaten and tortured when arrested #Skylibya
    by alex rossi via twitter 10/13/2011 10:02:35 AM

    .@Inphinite_ hard to say i saw hundreds of civs on Tuesday. None yesterday but quite a few young men in civ clothes who were arrested
    by alex rossi via twitter 10/13/2011 10:05:27 AM

    RT @bucketofsoda: @alexrossiSKY Alex, do you have any evidence that FF carry out executions on Gs fighters. Venezuelan reporter claimed ...
    by alex rossi via twitter 10/13/2011 10:07:45 AM

    Gaddafi loyalists, taken prisoner by anti-Gaddafi fighters, are led out after they were found
    hiding in the Ibn Sina hospital in the centre of Sirteby tim.hewage 10/13/2011 10:17:42 AM

    RT @PerspectivesID: @alexrossiSKY In yr report of 12/10 1 prisoner (striped top) had face blurred - who and why (apart from obvious hidi ...
    by alex rossi via twitter 10/13/2011 10:08:27 AM

    http://live-news.sky.com/Event/Battle_For_Sirte_Ask_Skys_Correspondent?Page=0

    ReplyDelete
  19. http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=19mjio&s=6

    Mauritanian district sirte

    9 october By the afternoon on Sunday, Libya's interim government fighters claimed to have managed to take control of Al Giza district in the former leader Muammar Al Qathafi's hometown of Sirte.

    They also captured the he badly damaged complex of the Ouagadougou conference centre believed to have been the pro-Al Qathafi forces' command centre,
    the Sirte university,
    and Ibn Sina hospital that were all being used by snipers.

    The NTC fighters took into custody of around 15 people suspected of being Al Qathafi loyalists who were controlling the hospital,

    on Sunday they had managed to take control of Al Giza district, the base for a large number of pro-Al Qathafi forces.

    Some who could not find any fuel for their cars, left on foot to be searched thoroughly by NTC forces at checkpoints in order to establish their true identity for fear that Al Qathafi forces could have been among them, particularly officers who lived in lavish villas at Giza.
    http://www.tripolipost.com/articledetail.asp?c=1&i=7061

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the Giza (Mauritanian) district,
      its farms birds and deer It is located at the eastern entrance of the City district Giza military and extends behind the Ibn Sina hospital

      Delete
  20. RT @Sierrasverdes1: @alexrossiSKY News from Black Libyans taken in Sirte? Did you check on ethnic cleansing of Tawerghas refugees there?
    by alex rossi via twitter 10/13/2011 10:15:08 AM

    @Okunolataofeek entire country under NTC control except Bani Waleed. don't know about fate of Nigerians #skylibya
    by alex rossi via twitter 10/13/2011 10:13:20 AM


    http://live-news.sky.com/Event/Battle_For_Sirte_Ask_Skys_Correspondent?Page=0


    The discovery of four groups of bodies numbering between 30 and 42, shot with their hands tied, has hinted darkly at executions in the area controlled by Gaddafi forces.
    At first it was believed they were captured government fighters. Now it appears they were civilians of Sirte.

    "They are not from the katiba [government militias]," said Dr Mohammed Abdel Rauf,
    whom I met near the pocket's southern front line.


    "The fighters came to see if the dead were among their missing and did not recognise the bodies.

    They had been divided into groups.
    There was a group who were dark-skinned and another group with lighter skin.
    Some had green army jackets.
    They were aged between 18 and 35-40, although I did not look at their faces.
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/16/libya-sirte-families-flee-gaddafi

    ReplyDelete
  21. http://libyancivilwar.blogspot.com/2011/10/sirte-massacres-30-wrapped-bodies-in.html

    It’s pretty clear that the Guardian wants to tell it’s readers that the crime was committed
    by “loyalists.” However, the Guardian forgot to tell it’s readers where the crime was committed and just said “three locations in the city.” But the Guardian reported now that the crime of the summary execution was committed just yesterday.

    ReplyDelete
  22. 2011-10-14

    Dozens of fighters advanced on foot Thursday toward Surt's last remnants of resistance, slogging through streets flooded with murky brown water from broken pipes. Sniper fire made splashes.
      
       Behind the moving front line, columns of anti-Kadafi fighters conducted a "cleanup" operation, shooting down doors, smashing cupboards and upturning beds as they searched for weapons and loyalist soldiers.

    Some of the hunted, looking gaunt and tired, were pulled from hiding places in homes and other buildings. In a child's room, abandoned military uniforms lay scattered on the floor beside a teddy bear; nearby stood a blown-out safe filled with Kalashnikov rifle rounds.
      
       "In this house we found 15 Kalashnikovs, radio transmitters and rocket-propelled grenades," said Lotfi el Amin, an anti-Kadafi fighter.
      
       As the revolutionaries consolidate their gains, uninhibited plundering is sweeping the city. As they continued to search homes and businesses, some made off with items varying from Lexus cars to chickens, afterward comparing their wares.
      
      "Clefty clefty!" laughed men, using a Libyan slang term for looting.
    http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-libya-surt-20111014,0,2733059.story


    Tanks manned by fighters allied with the transitional government fired relentlessly at pro-Kadafi forces pinned in a compact residential district of Surt close to the Mediterranean coast, sending dust and concrete into the air.

    Anti-Kadafi fighters with rifles moved into firing position, crunching over spent ammunition cartridges that littered the central garden plaza.

    "This is about to be over. They have nothing left now," said Basset Bibas, 35, an anti-Kadafi fighter.

    Sirte - Dr Abdel Latif Milad was showing his visitors around a war-battered hospital in Muammar Gaddafi's hometown Sirte when a window let in the stench of nine bodies decomposing in the sun outside.

    "I don't know where they came from or who left them there," said the doctor, adding that they had been dumped in mysterious circumstances in the hospital grounds.

    http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/grim-find-at-sirte-hospital-1.1158118?ot=inmsa.ArticlePrintPageLayout.ot

    Back in the Ibn Sina hospital courtyard littered with trash and debris, a small team of doctors took on the task of wrapping the nine decomposing bodies in a white bag, laying them on stretchers.

    In a cloud of flies, a doctor with a blue blouse, surgical mask and latex gloves examined the dead, dressed in civilian clothing but with no identification papers.

    "At least three of them were shot in the head," said Dr Imad al-Fassi, while an AFP reporter saw one with a smashed skull.

    Doctors said the time of death dated back to "at least a week".

    No one at the hospital seemed to know who they were, who killed them, or why they were doing at the foot of the hospital wall.

    ReplyDelete
  23. 66 captured members of the convoy at the nearby Mahari Hotel.


    http://libyaagainstsuperpowermedia.org/tag/ibn-sina-hospital/

    In addition, some of the bodies had bandages over serious wounds,
    suggesting they had been treated for other injuries prior to being executed,
    a stark reminder of the earlier murderous rampage of the rebels through the Abu Saleem
    hospital in Tripoli.



    http://libyancivilwar.blogspot.com/2011/08/tripoli-massacres-abu-salim-trauma.html


    One of the most chilling of the CIWCL’s clues is an early Red Cross (ICRC) visit to re-supply the hospital, made on the 22nd, just before a three-day span of silence and inaction. The ICRC team didn’t notice any signs of the previous day’s massacre,
    or have anything said by the one doctor and his 25 remaining patients.
    http://ciwclibya.org/lettersandpressreleases/rememberinganeglectedatrocity.html


    On 10 October the ICRC had evacuated eight wounded patients from the hospital.
    The ICRC transferred the first group of evacuated patients to a hospital in Tripoli.
    The second group are being taken to a medical facility west of Sirte,
    for onward transport by helicopter to hospitals in Tripoli.
    https://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/news-release/2011/libya-news-2011-10-11.htm

    ReplyDelete

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