LOCALS IN a Tripoli district where more than 50 charred bodies were discovered over a week ago fear that the area may contain more undiscovered corpses after a body bearing signs of mutilation was found buried in a government-owned concrete factory yesterday.
The male corpse was found yesterday by locals alerted by the stench in a government-owned concrete factory in the Khalida Ferjan area of the southern Tripoli district of Salahuddin. A severed hand was found first, followed by the body.
The corpse, which had swollen in the heat and was covered in maggots, had been wrapped in a blanket and buried in a pile of sand and rubble. Its fingers and legs showed signs of mutilation. A doctor at the scene named Ahmed Suweidy said the corpse also appeared to have been partly burnt.
Police officer Salah Smohem said he believed other bodies may be buried within the factory grounds. “The smell suggests there must be others. A machine will be brought tomorrow to help dig to see if we can find more.” The body was discovered just metres away from a yard where Human Rights Watch had inspected the blackened remains of at least 50 bodies in a warehouse adjoining the Yarmouk military base, home to the feared Khamis Brigade, a force commanded by Muammar Gadafy’s son Khamis.
The base was the scene of fierce fighting between rebels and Gadafy’s forces last month. A statement from Human Rights Watch said members of the Khamis Brigade appeared to have carried out the killings at the warehouse on August 23rd.
A supervisor at the concrete factory named Abdul Rehman Mohamed told The Irish Times that at the beginning of June, staff at the factory were told by Khamis Brigade members that it had to close.
“The Khamis people then brought their men, weapons and cars here,” he added.
Mahdi Younis, a retired Libyan air force captain who lives nearby, said in the weeks leading up to the rebels’ advance on Tripoli, locals were warned by Gadafy’s forces not to take particular roads. “We suspect they did some of the worst things here in this area,” he said.
Meanwhile, thousands of Libyan interim government forces remained massed around the town of Bani Walid which remains in the hands of Gadafy loyalists, as talks aimed at averting bloodshed continued. Last week, a senior military commander for the National Transitional Council said he believed the deposed leader was in the town, which is located 150 km south of Tripoli, along with his son Saif ul-Islam. Yesterday, however, council negotiators said they believed the only member of Gadafy’s entourage still in the town was his spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim.
Another son of Gadafy, Saadi, told CNN he was “a little bit outside” Bani Walid, had not seen his father for two months and was attempting to help broker peace despite “aggressive” talk from his brother Saif.
In Tripoli, council officials said water had returned to much of the capital after weeks of shortages. Ahmad Darat, the interim interior minister, said about half the police force had returned to work in the city.