By Libya Herald reporters.
Misrata, 3 April 2016:
An historic city centre tomb containing the bodies of 38 Misratans massacred by Italian troops . . .[restrict]in 1915 has been destroyed by Salafists in broad daylight with no one stopping them.
The followers of Sheikh Wahhab Salafi Rabea Almudkhali yesterday used a digger to tear down the tomb, apparently on the basis that the adjacent Aal-Matouss mosque was to be expanded.
The tomb contained the bodies of men, women and children who were killed in the city after the Italians had been defeated at the battle of Raas Tuba.
After the battle, a dead Italian soldier was discovered beside a house of the Al-Matouss family. Soldiers broke into the building and killed all 38 people inside. The bodies were thrown into a water storage pit under the house which was then demolished. A church was later built near the site. In 1970 it was turned into a mosque. The bodies of the dead were recovered and placed in the specially-built tomb. [/restrict]
