Gaddafi thugs gunned down in cold blood by the Libya 'good guys' who 'regard themselves as above the law'
- Growing concerns over possible war crimes by rebel fighters
- 53 people shot dead at Mahari Hotel in Sirte, Gadaffi's last stronghold
Last updated at 1:11 AM on 25th October 2011
On the lawn of a hotel garden next to the Mediterranean, the blackening bodies of 53 people lay decomposing.
Some had their hands bound together, and bloodstains and spent rifle cartridges on the grass indicated they had been summarily executed where they fell.
It was a scene from hell, but perhaps most chilling was the realisation that these were not victims of Muammar Gaddafi’s brutality.
Horror: Corpses in the hotel gardenon the shore of the Mediterranean
Rather they were, the evidence would suggest, victims of the ‘good guys’, the supposedly democratic new friends of the West who have been ushered into power by Britain, France and the U.S.
For the bloodbath was in Gaddafi’s stronghold of Sirte, and although the perpetrators are unknown, triumphalist graffiti on the walls of the hotel proclaimed the names of five Misrata-based fighting groups.
Arguably, they suffered the greatest losses, and possibly fought the most intense battles, during the bloody siege of Libya’s third-largest city when Gaddafi threw everything he had at crushing the revolution there.
Few of the young Misrata fighters would not have witnessed friends and comrades dying in agonising circumstances. Was this, a massacre at the Mahari Hotel in Gaddafi’s home town, their terrible revenge?
There are growing concerns about possible war crimes by rebel fighters who helped to oust Gaddafi and now regard themselves as above the law.
Deserted: Sirte - the last Gaddafi stronghold to fall to the rebels - has become an eerie ghost town
Eerie: As the house where Gaddafi hid stands in the background, a man walks in another part of Sirte, where residents are slowly starting to return
The New York-based Human Rights Watch yesterday demanded an inquiry into the atrocity at the hotel, warning of a ‘trend of killings, looting and other abuses’ by those who triumphed over Gaddafi thanks only to the support of Britain’s armed forces and those of our allies.
Sirte residents have placed most of the bodies at the Mahari Hotel in bags and have been taking them away for burial.
They identified four of the dead as Ezzidin al-Hinsheri, allegedly a former Gaddafi government official, a military officer named Muftah Dabroun, and two Sirte residents, Amar Mahmoud Saleh and Muftah al-Deley.
The state of decomposition suggests the victims died at the same time, between October 14 and 19, says Human Rights Watch.
Gruesome: Burnt out cars and bodies of Gadaffi bodyguards litter the area outside the Libyan coastal town of Sirte close to the drainage sewer from which Gadaffi was dragged alive
Hotel from hell: The entrance to the Mahari Hotel in Sirte, where at least 53 people were apparently executed
Scruffy: Another picture inside the ville where Gadaffi hid shows an untidy basement with mattresses scattered everywhere
Reduced to rubble: Inside the villa where Gadaffi hid, a wall is knocked through, while outside a nearby building remains battered with a burnt out car parked by its entrance
Most of them apparently fled District Two, the neighbourhood where Gaddafi was hiding, and some had bandaged wounds, suggesting they had been patients in Sirte’s hospital at some stage.
In District Two, it is as if a hurricane of bullets and shrapnel has ripped through the town, tearing chunks out of buildings – and people. Bodies lie in the courtyards of homes and hundreds of thousands of spent rifle cartridges carpet every street. Even the trees are shredded.
Sirte – the last Gaddafi stronghold to fall to the rebels – is an eerie ghost town, but a few residents have begun returning. They stare in disbelief at the ruins of their homes, many of which seem to have been looted by the rebels.
Sewer capture: A picture shows the drainage sewer from which Gadaffi was dragged alive, before meeting his death soon after
Person effects: Used cups, including a Liverpool FC mug, are among the items found inside the villa where Gadaffi hid for two weeks
One resident fumed: ‘This war is not over yet. This war has only just begun.’ But others are in a state of shock rather than anger. Muftah Hassan, a 26-year-old engineer, said: ‘Not everyone here supported Gaddafi, and we had no choice that he came to hide here.
‘Our homes have been wiped out and our friends and family lie dead in the streets. There was no need for this.’
His friend Mohammed Bashir, 27, added: ‘Look at this place, at the bodies. It is an act of vengeance.’
Human Rights Watch’s emergencies director, Peter Bouckaert, last night urged the transitional authorities to ‘take action to rein in these groups’.
Human Rights Watch’s emergencies director, Peter Bouckaert, last night urged the transitional authorities to ‘take action to rein in these groups’.
n Gaddafi is expected to be buried today in an unmarked grave at a secret location, according to a rebel spokesman.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2053064/Gadaffi-dead-Thugs-gunned-Misrata-fighters-Sirte-Libya.html#ixzz1bpLY0zmL
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