Having just returned from Libya, the spokesman told Arab News from the Tunisian border that troops have been randomly shooting large numbers of unarmed locals. He also said there were reports of women being raped by Qaddafi loyalists, who are also accused of starving the local population of food and medicine.
Speaking to AFP, a doctor from Zawiyah said: “This was a real massacre. The situation is catastrophic. They killed many people. They killed my daughter.”
The opposition spokesman called for international and UN military assistance against the “African warlord,” a reference to the Libyan leader’s use of mercenaries from Chad, Mali and other West African countries. The spokesman claimed that only 10 percent of Qaddafi's current troop strength is composed of Libyans.
He also alleged that demonstrators and opponents have been rounded up, executed and cremated in the ovens of Tripoli’s tobacco factories, which he said are also being used to house foreign mercenaries. Independent corroboration of these allegations has been difficult to come by.
Sky News correspondent Alex Crawford in Zawiyah said there were reports of Qaddafi troops removing bodies to hide the number of dead. She added that many casualties had been taken to the town hospital, including a boy whose body was “peppered with bullets.”
Meanwhile, a correspondent was shown the wreckage of a warplane in the area of Ras Lanouf in eastern Libya that rebels said they had shot down on Saturday. Reuters correspondent Mohammed Abbas wrote in a brief message from the scene: “I am at the wreckage of the aircraft in Ras Lanuf.” He reported that the faces of the corpses seemed to have been ripped off.
He said he was shown a Sudanese passport that he was told belonged to the pilot but added that it showed his occupation as accountant.
Rebels holding the Libyan city of Zawiyah repelled two attacks on Saturday by pro-Qaddafi forces using tanks and artillery to retake the strategic town near the capital.
In a second day of fierce fighting for control of the coastal town, 50 km west of Tripoli, government forces retreated to the outskirts early in the day but later mounted a counter-offensive.
Rebels said both attacks were repelled. The city bore the signs of heavy fighting with one building completely burned and smoldering rubble littering the center.
The National Libyan Council based in the rebel-held east named a three-member crisis committee on Saturday to cover military and foreign affairs in a bid to streamline decision-making.
The council has said it will act as the face of the rebellion but says it is not an interim government. It also wants to shift its base from Benghazi to Tripoli. The council repeated its call for foreign air strikes to help dislodge the man who has been in power for 41 years and has used warplanes against rebel forces.
