Bodies of 53 apparent Gadhafi loyalists found in hotel

The bodies of 53 people, believed to be supporters of ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, have been found in a hotel that was under the control of anti-Gadhafi fighters, Human Rights Watch said Monday.

The rights group said it found the bodies clustered together at Hotel Mahari in Sirte on Sunday. About 20 residents were putting the bodies in body bags to prepare them for burial when Human Rights Watch found them.

"We found 53 decomposing bodies, apparently (Gadhafi) supporters, at an abandoned hotel in Sirte, and some had their hands bound behind their backs when they were shot," said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director of Human Rights Watch.

"This requires the immediate attention of the Libyan authorities to investigate what happened and hold accountable those responsible."
Residents told Human Rights Watch investigators they found the bodies last week after the fighting in Sirte stopped and they returned home.

They identified some of the deceased as Sirte residents and Gadhafi supporters.

Officials with the National Transitional Council, Libya's new leadership, were not immediately available for comment.

A NATO official noted that Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has repeatedly applauded the Libyan council for saying it is committed to human rights, the rule of law and reconciliation.

"What's important for us is to see that they're doing their utmost to get this message out about restraint and pulling the country together," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official is not authorized to speak by name on the record. NATO has "no way of verifying" the Human Rights Watch report and will not comment on it specifically, the official said.

The human rights group's report comes amid growing concerns about extrajudicial killings under Libya's new leadership.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told CNN Sunday that the United States supports calls by the United Nations and by Libya's National Transitional Council for an independent investigation into the death of Gadhafi. He was killed last week by a gunshot wound to the head.

Mahmoud Jibril, executive chairman of the National Transitional Council's executive board, has said Gadhafi's right arm was wounded when a gunbattle erupted between the fighters and Gadhafi loyalists as his captors attempted to load him into a vehicle.

More shooting erupted as the vehicle drove away, and Gadhafi was shot in the head, dying moments before arriving at a hospital in Misrata, Jibril said, citing the city's coroner.

Human Rights Watch, in its statement Monday, complained of the "still unexplained deaths" of Gadhafi and his son Mutassim while in the custody of fighters.

"At the site where Moammar Gadhafi was captured, Human Rights Watch found the remains of at least 95 people who had apparently died that day. The vast majority had apparently died in the fighting and NATO strikes prior to Gadhafi's capture, but between six and ten of the dead appear to have been executed at the site with gunshot wounds to the head and body," the group said.

A senior NATO official said Gadhafi's death came after he survived a NATO airstrike on a convoy in the Sirte area.

Mustafa Abdul Jalil, chairman of the NTC, said Monday in Benghazi that the council has established a committee to deal with Gadhafi's body. "The procedure will follow a fatwa made by the Islamic fatwa society," he said.

Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, commander of the NATO military operation, said at a news conference Monday, "We saw a convoy, and in fact we had no idea that Gadhafi was on board." It was a surprise that Gadhafi was in the area, Bouchard said. The convoy was carrying weaponry, and seemed to present "a clear threat to the population," he said.

Human Rights Watch, in its statement Monday, also reported other instances of bodies found recently in Sirte.

At a separate site in the city, "Human Rights Watch saw the badly decomposed bodies of 10 people who had apparently also been executed," the group said. "The bodies had been dumped in a water reservoir in District 2 of the city. The identity of the victims was unknown, and it was not possible to establish whether Gadhafi forces or anti-Gadhafi fighters were responsible."

Sirte, Gadhafi's hometown, was one of the last cities to fall before the National Transitional Council declared the country liberated Sunday following his 42-year rule.

However, anti-Gadhafi fighters from Misrata had controlled the area of Sirte where the hotel is located since early October, Human Rights Watch said, citing witnesses.

On the entrance and walls of the hotel, the group said, it saw the names of several brigades from Misrata.

Based on the condition of the bodies, the group's investigators determined the 53 had been killed between October 14 and 19.

"The evidence suggests that some of the victims were shot while being held as prisoners, when that part of Sirte was controlled by anti-Gadhafi brigades who appear to act outside the control of the National Transitional Council," Bouckaert said.

"If the NTC fails to investigate this crime it will signal that those who fought against Gadhafi can do anything without fear of prosecution."

In addition, medical officials in Sirte told the group that pro-Gadhafi forces had carried out killings in the city and that they had found 23 bound bodies between October 15 and 20.

U.S. pulls ambassador out of Syria over safety concerns

The United States has temporarily pulled its ambassador out of Syria as a "result of credible threats against his personal safety," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Monday, accusing Syria of "incitement" against Ambassador Robert Ford.

"At this point, we can't say when he will return to Syria," Toner said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Imad Moustapha, the Syrian ambassador to the United States, was recalled to Damascus "for consultations," embassy spokeswoman Roua Shurbaji said Monday.

Shurbaji had no information about why Moustapha was recalled or how long he will be gone. The deputy chief of mission in Washington will be filling Moustapha's role while he is gone, she said.

Ford was attacked by a pro-government "armed mob" last month, a United States official told CNN at the time. The official is not authorized to speak to the media and asked not to be named.

While there have been long-standing concerns about Ford's safety and threats against him, the decision was made to pull him temporarily after government-sponsored Syrian media began running false reports blaming Ford for death squads in Syria similar to the ones in Iraq, senior State Department officials told CNN.

The department was afraid the reports would inflame sentiment against Ford and would prompt pro-regime hardliners to harm and perhaps kill him, the officials said.

"We are concerned about a campaign of regime-led incitement targeted personally at Ambassador Ford by the state-run media of the government of Syria and we are concerned about the security situation that that has created," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland on Monday. "... I want to take this opportunity to call on the government of Syria to immediately end its smear campaign of malicious and deceitful propaganda against Ambassador Ford."

Ford, who has been outspoken against the Syrian government's use of violence against protesters, is seen by Syrian government supporters as an activist more than a diplomat.
He sparked a diplomatic firestorm in July when he traveled to the restive city of Hama to express support for demonstrators. He was welcomed with flowers by local residents who had suffered a brutal crackdown by government forces. President Bashar al-Assad's government called the trip an attempt to foment dissent.

A crowd tried to assault Ford and embassy colleagues September 29 "as they went about doing the normal work of any embassy," Toner said at the time.

"The mob was violent; it tried, unsuccessfully, to attack embassy personnel while they were inside several embassy vehicles, seriously damaging the vehicles in the process," Toner said.

Syrian security officers helped secure a path back to the U.S. Embassy for the ambassador and his staff.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned what she described as "an unwarranted attack" when Ford and his aides were conducting "normal embassy business."

The department does plan on sending Ford back, the officials said. It is hoped that his stay in the United States will be a brief cooling-off period and that the United States can persuade the Syrian government to abide by its obligations under the Vienna Convention to protect foreign diplomats in their country, they said.

"We do expect that Ambassador Ford will be returning to Damascus after his consultations are completed," Nuland said.

The department feels Ford serves a useful function as the United States' eyes and ears in the country, the officials said. In addition to serving as a witness to the regime's violence against protesters, he is seen as a key link to the opposition.

Ford was confirmed as ambassador to Syria in April after five years during which Washington did not have an envoy in Damascus.

Relations between Syria and the United States have been tense in recent months as Syria clamped down on demonstrations against Assad. At least 3,000 people have died, the United Nations and other international observers estimate.

Earlier this month, a Syrian man was arrested in the United States, accused of spying on Syrians demonstrating in the United States. Syria rejected the indictment's claim that Mohamad Anas Heitham Soueid worked for Syria's intelligence agency, the Mukhabarat.

And it described as "ludicrous" the indictment's assertion that Soueid, a Syrian-born American citizen, had met privately with Assad.

how did Gadhafi end up dead, If he was captured alive?

The death of longtime Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi helped solidify the National Transitional Council's power in Libya, but there is still a large amount of uncertainty about the circumstances surrounding how he was killed, what happened during the last battle in Sirte and what it all means for the future of Libya.

When Gadhafi's death was first reported, it came with a large amount of uncertainty.

Multiple scenarios emerged as to how the last minutes of his life played out, thanks to cell phone pictures and videos, many later uploaded to YouTube. Then, there were statements from officials from NATO, from within Libya and from the National Transitional Council about what happened.

And as the country prepares to move on, the international community searches for answers as to exactly what happened in the minutes after Gadhafi was captured.

What exactly do we know about how Gadhafi was captured?

We know that the events leading to Gadhafi's death began about 8:30 a.m. Thursday in Libya, according to a NATO official, when a convoy of loyalists made a break from a part of Sirte and headed west, trying to get out of the city.

Gadhafi had long been suspected of being holed up in his hometown, which was one of the only remaining regime strongholds.

U.S. drones and French fighter jets struck the convoy, splitting it up and forcing the loyalists to scurry away on foot.  A NATO official said Gadhafi was in that convoy, though he was not hit.

Gadhafi fled with a handful of his men. The revolutionaries found him hiding in a drainage pipe.

Mahmoud Jibril, Executive Chairman of Libya's National Transitional Council, said that after Gadhafi was found, a gunbattle erupted between transitional council fighters and Gadhafi's supporters. His captors attempted to load him into a vehicle, leaving Gadhafi with a wound to his right arm.

Video out of Sirte showed what appeared to be a heavily wounded and bloodied Gadhafi being held up by NTC fighters as they took him toward a vehicle.

What happened after that is more murky.

What do we know about how Gadhafi died?

When Gadhafi was captured, he was, by all accounts, alive.

Several videos from the scene showed Gadhafi looking wounded and confused but alive and even walking as he was pulled toward a vehicle.

Jibril said Gadhafi was shot in the arm as he was dragged into a vehicle headed to Misrata, a two-and-a-half-hour trip.

But the autopsy report from the chief pathologist said Gadhafi died of a gunshot wound to the head.

So how did Gadhafi go from being captured to being shot in the head?

It depends on whom you ask, and there are many details that simply are not confirmed.

Leaders of Libya's interim government have said Gadhafi was killed in that crossfire after fighters captured him in Sirte.

But videos and pictures coming out of Libya lead to more questions about what shot may have killed the leader.

Some members of the international community had hoped there would be some more clarity from the autopsy report.  But the doctor who conducted the examination would not disclose whether findings revealed that he suffered the wound in crossfire or at close range, a key question that has prompted the United Nations and international human rights groups to call for an investigation into the final moments of Gadhafi's life.

Jibril, the transitional prime minister, said that as the vehicle carrying the wounded Gadhafi drove away, more shooting erupted, and that was when Gadhafi was shot in the head.

Mohammed Sayeh, a senior member of the council, said that in the hail of gunfire, Gadhafi was shot in the feet and then in his head.

"I cannot tell you whether it was from far or near, but it was unintentional," he said. "No one decided to kill him or slaughter him. It would have been much better for us Libyans and the whole universe to capture him and take him to a court."

But in a new video from Reuters, a man standing next to an ambulance claims he killed the ousted leader, and another man claims he saw it happen. The group surrounding him applauds and hugs the self-described gunman.

There were no more specifics given about the fatal shot.

Gadhafi's Photo after Death

Former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was killed October 20 in his home town of Sirte, as forces from the National Transitional Council overran and liberated the city.
Three of Gadhafi's children have fled the country and at least three of his sons are thought to be dead.
Here is a look at the Gadhafi family -- a large, at times quarrelsome, clan that helped the embattled strongman hold onto power for more than four decades.

Celebrations erupt in Libya After Gadhafi's death

Even before confirmation of ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's death came from the nation's interim government Thursday, Libyans erupted in jubilation after early reports said he had been captured or killed.
A "cacophony of celebration" could be heard in Tripoli as ships and cars blasted their horns and shots were fired into the air, said CNN's Dan Rivers.


"It is very, very loud -- a lot of excitement," Rivers said.
"It's a great moment," said Mahmoud Shammam, information minister for Libya's National Transitional Council. "I've been waiting for this moment for decades, and I'm thanking God that I'm alive to see this moment."
The sound of cheering could be heard, along with a call to prayer, as people embraced and jumped up and down joyfully and crowds ran through the streets alongside cars.


While reports of Gadhafi's fate were unconfirmed earlier Thursday, "what isn't speculation is what's going on down here," Rivers said.
Outside a hotel, staff including chefs wearing their white hats gathered, dancing and waving Libyan flags.
"They're breathing a huge sigh of relief here," Rivers said. Many Libyans were concerned that a free Gadhafi might play a role in destabilizing Libya in the future, he said.
In Sirte -- Gadhafi's hometown -- video showed people gathering in celebration, some riding on the tops of cars waving Libyan flags and shooting guns in the air as horns honked.


One man, dressed in fatigues and carrying a weapon, ran up and kissed a television camera. Others chanted, danced and waved their hands in the air, some flashing the "peace" sign.
Libyan television networks displayed a cell phone photo released by Agence France-Presse showing a bloodied man identified as Gadhafi.
On Wednesday, Libyan fighters said they had entered the last holdout of Gadhafi loyalists in Sirte. The NTC said it would officially declare Libya liberated when Sirte fell.


Many had suspected Gadhafi was hiding in Sirte after revolutionary forces took Tripoli in August. He was wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, for alleged crimes against humanity and had not been seen in public in months.
Social media sites such as Twitter showed users expressing support for the Libyans and noting that Gadhafi's death would be another victory in a year that has seen the ouster of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and the death of Osama bin Laden. Those from countries that participated in the so-called Arab Spring issued messages of support for Libyans.

Latest News in Libya

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has been killed. Here are the latest developments:
-- U.S. Defense Department costs for operations in Libya stand at about $1.1 billion as of September 30, according to Pentagon spokesman George Little. That includes daily military operations, munitions, the drawdown of supplies and humanitarian assistance.
-- Opposition activists from Syria and Yemen said dictators should pay heed to the fate of Gadhafi.
-- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, "This day marks an historic transition for Libya," after hearing of Moammar Gadhafi's death.
-- U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry said Gadhafi's death marks the end of his reign of terror and the promise of a new Libya.
Earlier developments:


On the ground:

-- Moammar Gadhafi's son Mutassim has been killed, according to Anees al-Sharif, spokesman for AbdelHakim Belhajj of the Tripoli military council.
-- Al-Sharif also said Gadhafi's chief of intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi, has been killed.
-- Libyans erupted in jubilation with the first reports that Gadhafi may have been killed. A "cacophony of celebration" could be heard in Tripoli as ships and cars blasted their horns and shots were fired into the air.
-- Revolutionary fighters attacked the house where Gadhafi was hiding, National Transitional Council Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam told CNN. Gadhafi was shot while trying to flee, he said.
-- A cell phone photograph distributed by the news agency Agence France-Presse appeared to show the arrest of a bloodied Gadhafi. CNN could not independently verify the authenticity of the image.
-- A video surfaced that apparently shows Gadhafi's body.


International:

-- NATO is going to convene soon for a meeting to discuss ending its operation in Libya, a source told CNN's Barbara Starr on Thursday.
-- NATO said its aircraft struck two pro-Gadhafi military vehicles in the vicinity of Sirte on Thursday. "These armed vehicles were conducting military operations and presented a clear threat to civilians," Col. Roland Lavoie said.

Gadhafi was killed

Former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was killed October 20 in his home town of Sirte, as forces from the National Transitional Council overran and liberated the city.
Three of Gadhafi's children have fled the country and at least three of his sons are thought to be dead.
Here is a look at the Gadhafi family -- a large, at times quarrelsome, clan that helped the embattled strongman hold onto power for more than four decades.


MOAMMAR GADHAFI
Became leader of Libya in 1969. Prior to his death on October 20, Gadhafi was last reported seen June 12, two weeks before the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest.
An audio message purporting to be from him aired August 24, days after rebels overran the capital Tripoli.
Gadhafi's son Saif al-Islam told Syria's Rai TV August 31 that his father was "fine. We are fighting and we are drinking tea and drinking coffee and sitting with our families and fighting."
The Algerian government announced earlier that week that Moammar Gadhafi's wife, Safia, and three of his grown children -- daughter Aisha and two of his sons, Hannibal and Mohamed -- had arrived in the neighboring North African country.


But on September 1, Algeria's foreign minister denied that the leader had come with them.
"Of course not," Mourad Medelci told French radio network Europe 1 when asked whether Gadhafi was in Algeria.
"The hypothesis that Mr. Gadhafi could come knocking on our door was never considered."
Gadhafi had said repeatedly he had no intention of ever leaving Libya.


SAIF AL-ISLAM

The most noted power player is Saif al-Islam. Once seen as a possible successor to his father and an advocate of reform, he became a vocal defender of his father's brutal regime. Saif is wanted by the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant for him in June on charges of crimes against humanity. Although rebels claimed his capture when they rolled into Tripoli, Saif al-Islam later showed up at the Rixos Hotel in a convoy of armored Land Cruisers.
Since then, his whereabouts have been unknown, but at the end of August he vowed "Victory or martyrdom!" in a call to Syria's Rai TV.
Saif al-Islam, saying he was speaking from a suburb of Tripoli, urged Libyans to rise up against the rebels: "Wherever you see the enemy, attack them. They are weak, they have suffered lots of losses and they are now licking their wounds."


He is the second-oldest son, the oldest of Gadhafi's second wife Safia. He was educated at the London School of Economics. He speaks fluent English, is a fastidious dresser and he paints. An exhibition of his work was displayed in Moscow.


SAADI

Saadi offered to negotiate an end to the war with the rebels after his father's troops lost control of Tripoli, but later seemed to change his mind. In intermittent contact with CNN's Nic Robertson earlier, he originally appeared willing to promise his father and older brother would stay out of the way of a peace deal. "If (the rebels) agree to cooperate to save the country together (without my father and Saif) then it will be easy and fast. I promise!" Saadi Gadhafi said in an e-mail to Robertson. He said the opposition cannot "build a new country without having us in the table."
But he later said he would not surrender to the rebels. They, in turn, offered him safe passage to Tripoli and proper treatment, but said he would be put on trial rather than given a chance to negotiate.
A businessman, Saadi ran the Libyan Football Federation before the unrest began. He played soccer for Perugia in Italy for one season. Leaked U.S. diplomatic cables posted on WikiLeaks claim that he had "scuffles" with police in Europe.


AISHA
Moammar Gadhafi's only daughter, a former U.N. goodwill ambassador who has kept a low profile during Libya's violent uprising, crossed into Algeria with her mother and brothers Hannibal and Mohamed August 29. She gave birth to a daughter at the border, sources close to her family told CNN.
Known in the Arab media as the "Claudia Schiffer" of the region, the striking blonde beauty was once considered her embattled father's best asset. But, unlike her brothers, Aisha Gadhafi has largely kept out of the public eye as rebels continue to quash the last pockets of resistance from her father's 42-year-old regime.

Many observers expected her to show more support for her father's increasingly beleaguered regime, especially when a NATO airstrike in April killed her brother, Saif al-Arab Gadhafi, and her own daughter -- one of several Gadhafi grandchildren who died in the attack.
In February, as Moammar Gadhafi called on the military to crack down on anti-government protesters early in the Libyan conflict, the United Nations terminated his daughter's stint as a goodwill ambassador in Libya for the U.N. Development Program.


A lawyer by profession, she is also known to toe a very tough political line. She has been a longtime, loud supporter of anti-government groups -- except at home -- including the IRA and the insurgents in Iraq. She was famously part of Saddam Hussein's defense team when he was tried. He ultimately was convicted and hanged. When London's Telegraph newspaper asked her how she felt about Iraqis who say he slaughtered thousands of their countrymen, she replied, "You are bound to meet people who may be against your policies."


HANNIBAL
Hannibal fled into Algeria with his mother, sister Aisha and brother Mohamed August 29. Rebels who picked through Hannibal Gadhafi's seaside villa a day earlier introduced CNN's Dan Rivers to his family's badly burned former nanny, who said she had been doused with boiling water by Hannibal Gadhafi's wife Aline when she refused to beat one of their crying toddlers. The nanny, Shweyga Mullah, is covered with scars from the abuse, which was corroborated by another member of the household staff.

Hannibal has reportedly paid millions of dollars for private parties featuring big-name entertainers including Beyonce, Mariah Carey and Usher. Several of the artists now say they have given the money back.
It's not just Hannibal's parties that make news. He has been implicated in a string of violent incidents in Europe. He was accused of beating his staff, although the charges were later dropped. He was accused of beating his wife, model Aline Skaf, in a London hotel. She later said her broken nose was the result of an accident.
In a spectacular episode, Hannibal was stopped after driving his Ferrari 90 mph the wrong way on the Champs-Elysees in Paris. He invoked diplomatic immunity.


MOHAMED
Mohamed is the son of Moammar Gadhafi and his first wife, Fatiha. Mohamed was one of three Gadhafi sons who had been reported captured as the rebels overran Tripoli last week, but the rebels said he had escaped the following day. He was among the family who crossed into Algeria at the end of August.
Before the unrest, he was the head of Libya's Olympic committee and chairman of the company that operated cell phone and satellite services in Libya.


MUTASSIM
Mutassim was killed in Sirte October 20, the same day his father was killed, according to Anees al-Sharif, spokesman for AbdelHakim Belhajj of the Tripoli military council.
He once allegedly helped plot a coup against his father and had to flee the country when it failed. He was eventually forgiven and became his father's national security adviser. Mutassim was involved in official talks with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2009 about improving U.S.-Libyan relations.


KHAMIS

Khamis was said to command a special forces unit known as the 32nd brigade, or the Khamis brigade, which protected the Gadhafi family. His troops were involved in much of the heavy fighting throughout Libya.
Senior rebel commander Mahdi al-Harati told CNN Khamis was killed August 28 in a battle with rebel forces between the villages of Tarunah and Bani Walid -- near Misrata -- in northwest Libya. Khamis died from his wounds at a hospital, and was buried in the area by rebel forces, al-Harati said. CNN has not independently confirmed his death.


SAIF AL-ARAB
Saif al-Arab was killed in an April 30 NATO airstrike. Moammar Gadhafi and his wife were at their son's house when it was targeted. Very little is known about him.


MILAD
Milad is a nephew whom Moammar Gadhafi adopted. He is said to have saved Gadhafi's life in the U.S. bombing of his compound in 1986. Milad's whereabouts are unknown.