By Libya Herald reporters.
Benghazi, 27 October 2017:
The Libyan National Army (LNA) has ordered an immediate investigation after scores of corpses with bullet wounds were been found beside a deserted road near a town 50 kilometres south-west of Benghazi.
Some 36 bodies were discovered last night near Al-Abyar after locals told the LNA of their location. It is unclear when the victims were killed nor how people in the town came to know of the murders.
The dead are thought to be Libyan citizens. A security source was quoted by the Chinese news agency Xinhua saying that the bodies had been taken to Benghazi Medical Centre for forensic examination.
There are allegations that the slain men were terrorist suspects. This apparent mass murder follows the videoed evidence of extra judicial killings featuring Major Mahmoud Warfali of the LNA’s Saiqa Special Forces. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued a warrant for Warfali’s arrest and extradition to stand trial in the Hague.
The LNA insisted at the time that armed forces commander-in-chief Khalifa Hafter had already ordered the Saiqa officer’s arrest. Hafter had also initiated an investigation into the seven videoed murders in which a man looking like Warfali plays a prominent role in the summary execution of 33 men.
However, there were unconfirmed reports last week that Warfali may have been involved in a gunfight at Hamdi restaurant in Benghazi’s Gwarsha district in which an Egyptian member of staff was killed. Last month, the ICC questioned if Warfali was indeed still detained. At the beginning of the month he had been linked to five fresh murders this time in Ajdabiya.
