Perilous
Times
About 900 bodies in Libya mass graves
October 6, 2011 - 9:29PM
DPA
Two mass graves containing around 900 bodies have been found in
the Libyan capital Tripoli, the broadcaster Al Jazeera reports.
"Statements from witnesses led us to two graves of victims of the
former regime," Al Jazeera on Thursday quoted Nagui al-Essawi, a
military commander in Tripoli, as saying.
He added that the two graves had been discovered in Gargaresh, a
coastal area located some 7km from central Tripoli, and in Brasta
Milad, a rural area near the capital.
Al-Essawi, however, did not give dates when the victims were
believed to have been killed.
In September, rebel officials announced the discovery of a mass
grave containing the remains of around 1200 people near the
notorious Bu Salim Prison in Tripoli, where a massacre took place
in 1996.
The rebels' Transitional National Council has accused the regime
of the now-fugitive leader Muammar Gaddafi of killing thousands
during an armed conflict that started in February.
Meanwhile, street-to-street fighting raged on Thursday between
Libyan rebels and Gaddafi loyalists in the city of Sirte as the
battle entered its final stages, Arab media reported.
"Our fighters are carrying out fierce battles inside Sirte with
the fighters of the tyrant," a rebel fighter in Sirte told the
Dubai-based Al Arabiya channel.
Rebel forces are saying they now control more than half the city
but were still fighting to reach the centre of Gaddafi's
birthplace.
The International Committee of the Red Cross warned of a
humanitarian catastrophe inside Sirte because of the intensity of
the fighting.
"People are dying in hospitals inside Sirte because they do not
have the right treatment," the Red Cross said in a statement.
Sirte and Bani Walid are the final two Gaddafi bastions that the
rebels have been struggling for weeks to control.