Libya: Evidence Suggests Khamis Brigade Killed 45 Detainees (GRAPHIC)

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Libya: Evidence Suggests Khamis Brigade Killed 45 Detainees <1>
Bodies Found in Burned Warehouse
August 29, 2011

(Tripoli) – Members of the Khamis Brigade, a powerful Gaddafi military force run by Muammar Gaddafi’s son Khamis, appear to have summarily executed detainees in a warehouse near Tripoli on August 23, 2011, Human Rights Watch said today. Within three days the same warehouse was set on fire but the cause is unknown, Human Rights Watch said.



Human Rights Watch inspected the charred skeletal remains of approximately 45 bodies, still smoldering, on August 27. The remains were spread throughout a warehouse in the Khalida Ferjan neighborhood in Salahaddin, south of Tripoli, adjoining the Yarmouk Military Base. At least two additional corpses were seen lying outside, unburned.

“Sadly this is not the first gruesome report of what appears to be the summary execution of detainees in the final days of the Gaddafi government’s control of Tripoli,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “These merciless murders took place in the midst of Ramadan and those responsible should be brought to justice and punished.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed a survivor who 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. Human Rights Watch observed that one building in the compound had spray-painted on it “32nd Brigade,” which is part of the Khamis Brigades.

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http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/08/29/libya-evidence-suggests-khamis-brigade-killed-45-detainees

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