Monday, March 19, 2012

Khamis Brigade Shed Massacre: The Charred Victims

Amid the Cinders, a Skeleton Crew of Potent Clues
January 11, 2012
(incomplete, last edits March 18)

<< The Tripoli Massacres
      << The Khamis Brigade Shed Massacre

The main attraction of the media-hyped shed massacre behind the Yarmouk military base is the holocaust-evoking image of dozens of charred skeletal bodies sprawled across the floor of the rickety building. I'm late to start careful scrutiny of the scene inside this room. That's how I tend to work-from the outside in. Burnt bodies lack many of the clues (especiallyskin color) that I usuallylook for. But they're not devoid of clues, singly or collectively. Not by a long shot

I decided a separate post was needed to collect a tedious list of all imagery sources. It might be handy to open that in a new tab, as images are cited.

March 18: Total re-vamp coming, new numbers, less graphics. Total count of consistently identifiable bodies from available imagery: 38. There are certainly more than this - 40-50 remains my rough estimate.

The Graphic:
Ribs or eyes usually means laid face-up, otherwise face-down or on the side. North (NNE) is up, south (SSW) is down, so body #15 for example is "pointing" south, face-down. Unclear areas (mostly in corners) of more than a body, less than a body, perhaps one missed in confusing views, get letters. "a" is a partial rib cage. "b" is a large pile of debris that's largely non-human seeming (burnt junk) but surely with at least two bodies mixed in-some ribs are faintly visible. Area d is not really unclear, but just in case, it's got a name. Tissue "f" looks kind of like a slumped or heaped body, there in some shots, only its smoke stains remaining in others. 

Don't take the missing and present body parts too literally. Some spots, heads, arms, legs, aren't always clear. I don't want to say a head isn't there unless I'm sure (and I'm not, in any of these cases). I don't want to say feet are there unless I'm sure, because the norm is they're not. Hands and arms past the elbows are almost as frequently gone. 

My previous notion of then bodies #15/16 being layered to obscure the one's beheading ... not founded, I decided. That's now the singular body 17. Old #14 with the metal thing embedded is now #16. #11 here I missed previously: visible in Sky News footage, it's apparently not there in later footage - perhaps the body removed and put in the shipping crate outside? 

I'll start other notes as they occur to me. 

#1: Less burnt than most, hardly any bones are visible. The skin on his head is gone, showing bare skull, apparently the top and back visible - where we should see the skull's face. That the head may not be oriented right suggests it may not be attached. Further, the victim's outstretched left arm suggests the same resistance shown by a beheaded victim at Abu Salim trauma hospital a couple miles north in the same couple days. (new graphic forthcoming). 

#14: Dragged in head-first by the elbows, frozen that way. There's a bullet hole in the left side of his forehead. (see VSN, 1:04) This looks more like individual execution than the described shed massacre. 


#17: Previously taken as two bodies (15 and 16) piled together, one beheaded, I now think it's just one body.

#34: Here's another body of interest, a gory one. I think victim #34 along the north wall was killed - with guns and grenades on-site, right there. Or at least, his body was so attacked right there. This is a detail of a Shawn Baldwin photo, SB8 as listed here. (See also BL11)

Feel free to shoot me down, but this does not look like anyone hit by random grenades lobbed from the doors while trying to escape. Nor someone dragged out and back in by soldiers, nor simply planted therefrom elsewhere by anyone. Medium size will do.  
I suspect the head part was done first. Already laying in this position, pinned down, bound, or dead, a powerful gun was fired through the roof of his mouth. His skull might have been more intact, but fractured, before the fire loosened it like this. Maybe it all came off at once. His blood and brains were slapped against the wall, leaving perhaps that little "tongue" at lower left... Then I see his torso torn open by a grenade, possibly stuffed into a wound. The tissue of whole left torso was thus slapped against the wall as we see here, and blood sprayed upward onto the wall. 

Perhaps the order of those operations was different. And a bit of that is apparently from the smoke. This one's less burnt than usual. Sorry.

That's one case of grenade-expanded ribs I can suddenly see. Otherwise, I was inclined to call the burst ribs an effect of fire, curling the bodies backwards. I see plenty of that in the other bodies, including 34, and no good reason (yet) to expect any other besides this one was so attacked.

Some others I've suspected of possible on-site execution are #37 and 38, also along the back wall. Smaller black stains mar the walls behind their heads and shoulders, like a shadow. These could be smoke stains, but require an odd "teapot effect" (which seems possible - up to a point). They don't have the usual vertical wafting quality other smoke stains do (consider the wall next to body 26). Blood stains charred black? Cinderized brain stains of from a post-burning gunshot execution? 

See: SM6 SM15 DB4

56 comments:

  1. This new Euronews video is vital as it is the first time I have seen bodies #1 and #2.

    I agree with you that there are separate groups of bodies. The ones in the center were dumped.

    I do not agree that body #1 was killed on site. What I see here is one more proof that the shed was a morgue. #1 was the first body to be brought in and placed in the far corner in a line along the western wall.

    The three other reasons I have for believing the shed was a morgue are the two instances of normal morgue activity that we see going on behind Dr. Salim's back on August 27th:

    A black Libyan or laborer collect three bodies for burial. The front loader dumps three more bodies in the middle of the yard.

    We also have the testimony of Mustafa Abdullah El Hitri, who says most of the dead were "mainly loyalist officers."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I never did check that link (still didn't listen, will later), or give full credit to what you're saying here. Not a normal morgue, at any rate, but one run by rebels, with burning and lying and PR stunts happening there. I just don't think morgue is the right word, but it was a place rebels put dead people in and at the right time took them out again too.

      Bad link above. El Hitri

      Delete
  2. I had another closer look at my collection of 50 photos from inside the shed. More proof for the morgue hypothesis.

    The arrangement of bodies is not at all random, as one would expect if the victims died from gunshots or shrapnel.

    1) On the western wall there clearly is a row of bodies, with heads lined against the wall. Other bodies near walls also seem to be lined up.

    2) In the pile in front of the door most bodies have their heads facing the door, as if they were carried in legs first.

    3) Most, if not all of the bodies are lying on their backs, face up.

    The most peculiar thing is this: if the "victims" in front of the door where standing before they were gunned down, they would all have been standing with their backs facing the door!

    The story says they were all trying to run or get out through the door. Did they all decide to run neck first?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Note that body #1 still has his arm in an upright position. This means that rigor mortis set in before he was placed in the shed.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is interesting, my suspicions from day one was a rebel propaganda set up. Reason was in the timeline of events. There were several papers writing abt the fall of khamis base to rebels , while smoking bodies were shown press 4-5 day later. My first thought was that army ppl cought by rebels when they took base , had been executed and later incineratet and put on display for the press.
    I could try to find the news articles that supported my belief. Keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Anonymous – There are several "Khamis Brigade" bases in Tripoli. One is on the western approach to the city (27km?). This was captured by rebels early, possible on August 21st.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes Assosciated Press reffered to Khamis base 16 km west.

      Delete
  6. Wow, lotta comments. No total response now.

    @Anon: As Petri says, the base that fell on the 21st, when you see it and go "oh!" is miles away from this one. But we DO have clues for the 23rd, days before they admit taking it...

    A loyalist-run morgue, or a morgue for loyalists? I'd say the former makes enough sense. But the body #1 (any good photos at all?) suggests struggle. I see two rebels on him with a blade, but it could be head crushed in a bombing. If the former, no time for loyalists to make this morgue themselves as they die quickly once the Zombies are all over. Those along the west wall were maybe laid first, others dropped, some maybe killed on-site, but perhaps not #1. The piled ones are those not even intact as bodies, icky remains you don't want to try lining up. Might've literally been shoveled out of trucks by people trying to not even see the mess.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. THE 150 MLEGTA BAB EL ZAZIYA PRISONERS KILLED BY GRENADES

      *and according to Mlegta did the guards kill with grenades more than 150 prisoners before fleeing Bab al Ziziya , the HQ of Moamer Khadafi, taken by the rebels on tuesday, 23 aug.

      *9:17am UK, Thursday August 25, 2011
      A doctor in Libya has told Sky News how he witnessed the bloody aftermath of an alleged mass execution by Colonel Gaddafi's troops.

      Dr Moez said he was working in a hospital on the Matiga airbase, in east Tripoli, when a truck full of bullet-riddled bodies turned up outside.
      He said one of the survivors told them that they had been captured by Col Gaddafi's troops, held in a school for several days and then executed.
      http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/25/1010422/-Witnessing-Revolution-245:-Fighting,-atrocities-and-change-in-Libya
      and it's not always clear that human rights discipline is being maintained by Freedom Fighters

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKuxwmjq4Qg&feature=related
      معركة باب العزيزية - فيديو جديد
      Misrata brigade in mansoura
      معركة باب العزيزية - فيديو جديد

      it seems to be another load than the bodies of 20 aug :
      Dr Moez , who together with PHR works about the finding of bones of the 1996 massacre knows at forehand that the people who were killed on 20 aug and brought inside Matiga hospital on 24 aug , are the victims of khadafi .
      http://i43.tinypic.com/293yo7l.jpg


      No investigations have been carried out into other serious abuses, such as the extrajudicial execution of detainees and other war crimes, including the killing of some 65 people whose bodies were found on October 23 in a hotel in Sirte, which served as a base for opposition fighters from Misratah.
      http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/liby-f17.shtml
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=z57FnQlQ4r4

      Delete
    2. More news from the Hypocrates front, or should I say hypocritical front ?
      The 200 bodies of dr Moez of 24 aug has come less on 25 aug :

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=gy5sy2x10_g

      DR MOEZ : Aug 25, 2011

      10:39am UK, Thursday August 25, 2011 / Ramadan 25
      A doctor in Libya has told Sky News how he witnessed the bloody aftermath of an alleged mass execution by Colonel Gaddafi's troops.
      17 BODIES HELD BY KHAD FIGHTERS ....

      So 183 bodies are missing.
      http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xkrneb_more-than-150-bodies-have-been-found-in-a-warehouse-in-an-apparent-mass-killing-by-gadhafi-soldiers_news
      More than 150 bodies have been found in a warehouse.../29-08-2011


      AJE reporter had visited these 17 bodies :
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V78JMd_iio&feature=related
      AJE: Libyan political activists 'murdered by Gaddafi loyalists'
      Uploaded by Libyanym on Aug 26, 2011
      The bodies of 15 men have been found at a hospital in Tripoli.
      The rebels say they were political activists.

      TO WHICH OTHER MASSACRE AJE WAS IN THE WAY , BUT CAUGHT UP IN A STREET BATTLE ??????

      Delete
    3. On 25 aug you could hear another sound from London :

      "IN 1 OF THE OLD .regime.. COMPOUNDS WE DID FOUND 350 BODIES ,
      ARRESTED AND EXECUTED"

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsbjsYsz1Qw&feature=endscreen
      DR AHMED SHALABI on Aug 25, 2011

      Dr. Ahmed Shalabi's interview with BBC News detailing the current humanitarian crisis in Tripoli Libya.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeQ7Am86ls8&feature=related

      Ahmed Shalabi from the World Medical Camp for Libya speaking IN FRONT OF LONDON EMBASSY/ Aug 26, 2011

      Delete
    4. IN THE MEANTIME BANI SAYS THAT 40 REBELS LOST THEIR LIVE :
      http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xkn67x_gunfire-in-tripoli_news

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqPYhPkfHdw&feature=relmfu

      AND THOUSANDS OF DECOMPOSING BODIES DISAPPEAR NAMELESS & UNIDENTIFIED IN THE TAJOURA MASSGRAVES

      Delete
    5. @ Petri :

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mluoidSpOso&feature=related
      THE REBELS SAY IT ARE MERCENARIES AND THEY REFUSE TO BURY THEM
      @ 1.30

      This is a temporary mass grave for soldiers who allegedly fought under the green standard of Muammar Gaddafi. Buried in shallow graves by local residents, 19 badly decomposed bodies were pulled out of the ground. Locals around the sight believe 16 of those were mercenaries
      http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xl1naw_mass-grave-discovered-in-tripoli_news

      Delete
    6. @ felix : In the courtyard in front of the warehouse is still a truck, that smells unbearable. Inside, tiny cells in which prisoners were crammed. A bottle full of urine and some scraps of food are the last signs of life left by the occupants. Outside, on the wall of the truck, it is written: "God, Muammar, Libya", the emblematic slogan of Kadhafistes.

      http://www.france24.com/fr/20110828-libye-tripoli-cinquantaine-corps-calcines-decouverts-qg-khamis-kadhafi-massacre
      28/08/2011

      Discovered in #Gaddafi ’s compound in tripoli: a fridge with 18 bodies identified as NFSL members who were killed … tmi.me/g6N6N

      18 Bodies found in freezer within TRIPOLI MED CTR, some were identified as bodies of NFSL members martyred in May/June 1984

      #BODIES Found In #FREEZER BabalAZIYAH #FF: @thisisKhaledM They INCLUDE his Uncles Khaled & Yahya Martyred in 1984 #Libya
      http://www.libyauprisingarchive.com/916---920-from-a-good-source.html

      Delete
    7. felixFeb 11, 2012 11:50 PM

      "Rashid" is in fact Dr Mohamed Daw Rashed, qualified 1981, who is a general surgeon at Kettering General Hospital in the English Midlands.
      3524415 Mohamed Daw Rashed Registered with a licence to practise 1981

      He was in touch with the rebel-supporting Guardian newspaper here , 24 August 2011.

      11.34pm: We've been forwarded an email about an apparent civilian massacre in Tripoli in which around 200 people may have been killed.

      The email from Mohammed Rashed, who we're told is a surgeon from Kettering hospital, Northamptonshire, who is currently in the Libyan capital, says almost 20 bodies of executed civilians have been brought into Matiga Hospital in Tripoli in the past hour. He says it appears that at least one of those killed was an anti-Gaddafi activist.

      His email states:
      Apparently, 17 bodies were brought to the hospital. They all appear to have been executed by being shot at point blank range. The bodies are all clothed in civilian clothing and are all male between 15/16 and late middle age.

      Apparently one of the relatives of the executed bodies identified the body and said he was arrested about 10 days ago for being a political activist in Tripoli. The bodies were found in Bab Al Azaziya (I am not sure if that is in the compound or in the general area).

      I've so far been unable to reach Rashed on his Tripoli phone. But I'll try to bring you more on this as soon as possible.

      Delete
    8. The man Shalabi is called AYMEN Shalabi. Dr Moaz Zeiton is also associated with the World Medical Camp for Libya, established 20 February 2011.
      On their website, we see: WMCL spokespeople are very happy to talk to journalists and have already appeared on BBC Arabic, Sky News and Al-Jazeera.
      Press releases are available at our Press Center.
      For updates or to speak to a member of our press team please contact press@wmclibya.org.

      World Medical Camp for Libya
      C/o MS-Legal Solicitors
      88 Kingsway
      London
      WC2B 6AA

      Delete
    9. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mv1Zb3QaX0
      LIBYA: Fighting rages on in Capital Tripoli 8/25/11

      Is the Sky man @ 2.58 talking about another 150 bodies ?
      This would make the 200 Moez bodies to 350 dr ahmed shalabi bodies

      Area could be the woods around the city zoo , where the misrata brigade was inside @ that date

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiEd4zmFMTU&feature=relmfu
      HRW should research the hole where weapons were found :
      may be they find now a massgrave there

      Delete
    10. Aymen Shalabi , Ahmed Shalabi - same family. London.

      Delete
    11. Aymen Shalabi , Ahmed Shalabi


      After the visit, a spokesman for the court, Islam Shalabi,
      said Moreno-Ocampo believed "the site merits investigation."

      http://azstarnet.com/news/world/prosecutor-views-site-of-mass-killing-near-tripoli/article_5886a7c3-b548-59c2-b134-9ba3eba70663.html

      One survivor, 50-year-old ABDULLAH SALIM AL-DWEEB was among about 20 people who were released before the killings.

      Delete
    12. felix said :Not quite an adventurer...David Bruser & Steve Russell of the Toronto Star with 16 year old Ismail Al Dweeb

      Is the doctor Mohammad Ahmed who reached Bir Muammar,
      an opposition-held village, perhaps Mohamed A Murabit of Saskatoon, Canada?

      http://libyancivilwar.blogspot.nl/2011/11/foreign-adventurers.html?showComment=1341142242195#comment-c2283814056857542224


      "His uncle Mohammed, a computer programmer, lives in Toronto".

      Delete
  7. You can see body number #2 in VII image number 00108913 by Seamus Murphy. (Open image in new tab and change RENDERSIZE to 800 to see hd version.) It also shows what little is left of #3 (no skull?) and #4, #5, #6, and #7.

    ReplyDelete
  8. It is interesting that #1 is the only one who has chosen to "die" in a corner of the shed. I would assume the corners were the safest and people would tend to flock there if fired upon or hit with hand grenades.

    ReplyDelete
  9. some photo's inside the shed:


    http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/09/06/the_dark_corners_of_qaddafis_police_state?page=full
    the link don't work , but google : the dark corners of qaddafis police state
    and then you see the photo's


    http://publicintelligence.net/pro-gaddafi-loyalists-warehouse-massacre-photos/

    ReplyDelete
  10. Not sure if you have seen this yet.

    Journalist talks about NTC forces killing loyalists

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PPi7OLHl8w

    It looks like NTC forces executed a lot of prisoners, but that's not any new information.

    Just thought I'd share. Sorry if I have posed it in the wrong place.

    ReplyDelete
  11. @dj20 : THANKS
    @ 1.46 EXCREVATOR IN MISRATA. IN THE MEANTIME A EMPLOYE IS TALKING ABOUT THE PRISONS WERE THE PEOPLE WHO HAS SURRENDERED ARE KILLED.

    ReplyDelete
  12. @DJ20: That's a great video. It seems Mr.Orac (an American foreign adventurer) was trying to argue with the guy, but he was haing none of it.To his credit, the recordor did put the video up. Which makes me think I should save a copy.

    Not sure where this would best fit. I might give it a post of its own.

    ReplyDelete
  13. @Adam What worries me in the Arwa Damon footage is we see what seem to be heavy bodies being carted out of the shed in sheeting. These cannot be charred remains - we are 66 per cent water...Did each bag contain one skeleton, one uncharred body or perhaps something just for show? So what was left when the Telegraph or the BBC arrived the next day? Alex Thomson says that he counted 53 Skulls in here on the 28th. ( 4.06 on his C4 video of 31 August

    ReplyDelete
  14. David Bruser of the Toronto Star, 27 August reported some mounds were "still smouldering" but also "It is difficult to be certain how many skeletons, but about 40 skulls can be counted. One of the charred skeletons appears shorter than five feet, possibly that of a child."

    Incidentally, Bruser also wrote about widespread arrests of black Africans on 31 August with photo showing a group being herded into one of the familiar blue prison vans at gunpoint.

    ReplyDelete
  15. The placement of victims b and 8 may look random as they are no exactly in a north -south position, but in fact they are neatly laid along a large metal tank (air compressor) that blocks direct access to the wall.

    ReplyDelete
  16. One of the biggest lies which contradicted by the photos, especially that by Moises Saman, comes from Mabrouk Abdullah as reported to AP, and timed at Enduring America as 11.20 GMT, 28 August Abdullah, who was at the site, said he and other prisoners were told by a guard they would be released Tuesday. Instead, guards threw hand grenades and opened fire at detainees huddling in a hangar. Abdullah said he was crouching along a wall and was shot in his side
    Nobody is huddling here...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The body arrangement could be irrelevant. As established, it's not random, not as-they-fell. But considering what Laskhar says, it needn't be. He says they dragged all the bodies out (106 we hear, and man what a cold sweat when they realize they killed only 2 in 3) to bury. Only after machine troubles did they get the order to drag all back in and burn them. So about 45 were dragged in, and we get dragging-consistent arrangement.

      Not that I buy a word of that story, but we'll have to acknowledge that they thought of that and have an explanation in at least one person's story.

      Delete
    2. Maybe, but it is an inconsistency and blows great holes in the rebel story.

      If the bodies were taken out, how do we know the burnt bodies are the same that were killed there? What happened to the 60 missing bodies? Where are they buried?

      The diggers with "machine troubles" are another inconsistency. Is this a reference to the two broken-down front loaders in the shed compound. The UNHR report claims they were brought in after the 23th. The August 20th satellite image however shows they were there already on that date and have not moved since.

      Delete
    3. To continue:

      The placement of the bodies is not only ordered, i.e. not random, but it shows the bodies were brought in over a longer period of time. Individual bodies were brought in and laid out along the walls, starting with body #1. The final group in front of the door was dumped and dragged in in one batch.

      Delete
  17. The front loaders seem quite new Chinese equipment, not expected to break down. As also seen at the Bab Al Aziziya roundabout and at Qasr bin Ghashir in videos and pictures. As Evan Hill of AJE speculated, they are a very mobile kind of road block. One would think that prying eyes would need to be kept away from the compound during body manouevres. The diggers might just have a regular parking space. Furthermore, the photo of a loader in the lane clearning up bodies in the bucket is little more than a diversion. Bodies would arrive in trucks. Were they roadblocks?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj1v7TStF20&feature=player_embedded
      excrevators in the way ,because of heavy fighting, many Apaches shooting
      [ all Apache evidence deleted from YT]
      Libya - 20110823 - Meatiga & Suq Jumma, Tipoli - Heavy fighting (comment by pro-Gaddafi supporter)

      LIBYA: 'MASSIVE FIREFIGHT AROUND APARTMENT' 8/25/11
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOM8Wul1aQg&feature=endscreen&NR=1
      @ 3.28 y can see here an excrevator.Seems to come taking bodies.Note car @3.54

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mv1Zb3QaX0&feature=related
      excr @ 2.13 near bodies
      note this woman @ 2.36 cheering next to the bodies which are killed by her cute rebels. This ugly mouth @ 2.40 lying :
      " mercenaries" , while innocent ppl are burning

      Delete
    2. @Hurriya - those are brand new front loaders, unused. Not a mark in the bucket. Daewoo Doosan DL 500 models.

      Delete
  18. http://reflextv.webeden.co.uk/#/gaddafi-sirt/4557081288

    is this an iron piece in the chest?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. which? Row, column, page?? These are photos by Paul Conroy - see photo.

      Delete
    2. http://tinypic.com/r/dvobnr/5

      Delete
    3. Strange thing...thanks. Just a passenger - nobody driving....notice the incinerated remains of a "loyalist" on the ground in the next photo - still much more intact than the bodies inside the Khamis shed in Tripoli.

      Delete
    4. Something metal lower down, can't really tell. I don't think it matters here. Or does it?

      @Felix: I suspect these were only burnt once, unlike the shed victims.

      Delete
    5. the photo of the nato strike skeleton with all the flesh vanished and the iron inside the chest does raise the question if these brimstone missiles leave a mark on a victim.
      It could explain the iron subject inside the chest of some of the shed victims

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brimstone_%28missile%29
      http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/2012/03/the-brimstone-missile/
      Brimstone has a Tandem Shaped Charge (TSC) warhead that employs a smaller initial charge, designed to initiate reactive armor, followed by a larger, more destructive charge, designed to penetrate and defeat the base armour.

      Delete
  19. "Feel free to shoot me down, but this does not look like anyone hit by random grenades lobbed from the doors while trying to escape. Nor someone dragged out and back in by soldiers, nor simply planted therefrom elsewhere by anyone " :

    victims without legs , what could be the cause ?


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0oF1JSBogU&feature=plcp

    askary no legs @ 5.11 @ 5.46 @ 5.52 ; due to smth grad? 5.29

    tanks look more taken down by bombs @ 7.47

    ReplyDelete
  20. charred corpses in Algeria

    20 January 2013 a number of burned bodies found by Algerian troops after the fighting ended.
    They [Al Qaeda ] had strapped Semtex explosives around the torsos of many of their captives, threatening to blow them up at a moment’s notice.


    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2265349/Algeria-bloodbath-Weapons-handcuffs-phones-recovered-Algerian-gas-plant-eyed-fugitive-Mr-Marlboro-claims-responsibility-hostage-bloodbath.html#ixzz2IXnbcOrO

    *

    http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/425588/20130118/algeria-bp-siege-libya-connection.htm

    three militant camps south of the desert town of Sabha were training terrorists. A Libyan veteran of the 1980s Afghan war was in control of the camps and it is believed that he had met Belmokhtar in 2011.

    ReplyDelete

  21. ohchr: Empty cartridge cases were visible beside the human skeletal remains, as well as on the ground outside
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartridge_%28firearms%29


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbix1gE-h20&NR=1&feature=fvwp

    How A Grenade Works


    http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/explosives-compositions.htm

    Gelatin Blasting gelatin is a rubber-textured explosive made by adding nitrocellulose (guncotton) to nitroglycerin.
    An antacid is added for stability in storage. Wood meal is usually added to improve sensitivity. Blasting gelatin attains a very high detonation velocity and has excellent water resistance, but it emits large volumes of noxious fumes upon detonation. It is the most powerful of all commercial explosives. Blasting gelatin is also known as "oil well explosive."

    Semtex is an explosive containing both RDX and PETN. Semtex, a Czech-made explosive, has been used in many terrorist bombings. Dynamite has been replaced by the more destructive and easily concealed Semtex. SEMTEX is a plastic explosive that is odorless. SEMTEX along with a detonating cap, can be inserted inside a 5" x 6" musical greeting card, undetected.

    Three pounds of Semtex plastique packs enough punch to raze a two-story building.
    Terrorists attack with no warning and no rationale. Their weapon of choice is a pliable, odorless substance that is twice as powerful as TNT and is virtually invisible to conventional security devices.
    It can be hidden in a brief case or a small cassette recorder.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Even more vile, drone strikes “incinerate” victims, leaving them “in pieces and unidentifiable.”

    http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2012/09/25/life-for-pakistanis-in-us-drone-war-detailed-in-new-report/

    *

    This system includes, thanks to "unmanned zone," drones are constantly "hanging" over Libya and NATO intelligence aircraft.

    The entire internal telephone, radio and other communications on Libyan territory is "under the hood" electronic intelligence U.S. and UK.

    Overall management of these actions are performed with the U.S. base in Crete.

    On Saturday night, August 21, NATO aircraft bombed 46 times groups Tripoli.

    British used, in particular, managed satellite heavy bombs "Peyvuey-4."

    Loss of the Libyan army from these bombings were so significant that at the time of the assault the enemy had numerical superiority in manpower.

    Those least by the Libyan people's militia soldiers and officers for a few days have provided serious resistance.

    And thousands of Libyan patriots died a heroic death in the street fighting, were captured and seriously wounded were shot or tortured by mercenaries of Al Qaeda and NATO.

    http://nikolaysolo.livejournal.com/473200.html

    ReplyDelete
  23. throwing grenades into a cell gives this effect :

    militia May 28 Takfiri threw grenades inside the cell of Martyr Hamza Ali Ahmed Nasr 28-year-old resident
    Bani Walid

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NI9lLFPh19k#!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Jan. 22, 2013 Perhaps the most extraordinary find, though, was something Heathcliff O'Malley, the Telegraph photographer, two New York Times colleagues and I stumbled across almost by chance.

    We climbed into a field where we were told there might be a mass grave only to discover something even more startling: pile upon pile of landmines, neatly stored in their boxes.

    I made an initial, conservative calculation that there were 60,000 of them. I now learn that it was two and a half times that: 150,000.

    We picked our way nervously through the field, into an orchard.

    Here there were boxes containing rubbery and plasticky blocks, their lids off and exposed to the harsh summer sun. They were clearly marked: Semtex and TNT.

    In a guardhouse, carelessly scattered around, were a couple of bags full of hand grenades.

    There was also a giant, brand new, German mine-detecting device.

    One thing there wasn't was any sign of was security.

    We were there on our own. A local told us some rebels had visited but disappeared.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/how-explosives-i-found-in-libya-field-may-have-ended-up-with-algerian-terrorists-2013-1?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+businessinsider+%28Business+Insider%29

    ReplyDelete
  25. rebels selling weapons to "Tuaregs who had fought for Gaddafi," :

    "What we know is that there was a fairly dramatic upping of the weapons supplies available to rebels and their jihadi associates in northern Mali, many of them Tuaregs who had fought for Gaddafi,"

    Labeling tuaregs = next target

    ReplyDelete
  26. It would seem these weapons, so useless (like many weapons) in achieving anything Gaddafi was likely to need to achieve, say putting down rebellions or fighting off Western jets,

    were taken out of the Khamis Brigade barracks and dumped in the field to stop them getting hit by Nato missiles.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/how-explosives-i-found-in-libya-field-may-have-ended-up-with-algerian-terrorists-2013-1#ixzz2IiN4iit8

    ReplyDelete
  27. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBrz1OoWl68&feature=youtu.be

    In Amenans : Images amateur Jan 21, 2013

    ReplyDelete
  28. From Syrian Perspective, 18. March 2013:
    JAWBAR OCCUPATION ALMOST OVER; BIG NOTHING; NEWS FROM THE BATTLEFRONT WITH RAT-STATS
    This grenade is used exclusively to burn the bodies of foreigners like Tunisians. The idea is to render them unrecognizable. It is basically a phosphorus charge that can be used also to illuminate an area. This grenade was confiscated the day before yesterday in Jawbar.

    ReplyDelete
  29. A picture of the burning body of one of the worshipers in the mosque of piety during his release and the occurrence of blast


    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=627403040614865&set=a.190460560975784.42847.187117224643451&type=1&theater


    A pair of blasts in Lebanon, the magnitude of which have not been seen since the 1980s, is raising fears of heightening sectarian tensions.
    The two powerful explosions ripped through neighborhoods near mosques in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on Friday.
    http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/23/world/meast/lebanon-tripoli-blast


    *


    burned by fire

    Egyptian human rights activists that the detainees who were killed in Abu Zaabal prison were subjected to torture and burned in order to hide evidence
    http://www.alkhabarnow.net/news/72727/2013/08/20/
    20 8 2013

    *

    ? using gasoline and tires ?

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=365698676829193&set=a.211623885570007.49670.211377508927978&type=1&theater

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=220004668065262&set=a.220000338065695.51866.211377508927978&type=1&theater



    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=364769473588780&set=a.211623885570007.49670.211377508927978&type=1&theater



    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=613616565349877&set=a.270839626294241.78700.265287746849429&type=1

    ReplyDelete
  30. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=507030812695978&set=a.507029422696117.1073741825.211377508927978&type=1&theater

    some cm for every body , up to 52

    ReplyDelete
  31. Clearing up by burning the bodies of fallen enemies seems to be the normal MO of the US Marines.

    Pics of Marines Burning Bodies Trigger U.S. Military Investigation [PHOTOS] – 1/15/2014

    ReplyDelete

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