TRIPOLI, Libya - Retreating loyalists of Moammar Gadhafi killed scores of detainees and arbitrarily shot civilians during the past week, as rebel forces extended their control over the Libyan capital, survivors and a human-rights group said Sunday.
In one case, Gadhafi fighters opened fire and hurled grenades at more than 120 civilians huddling in a hangar used as a makeshift lockup near a military base, said Mabrouk Abdullah, 45, who was shot in his side. Some 50 charred corpses were still scattered across the hangar Sunday.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said the evidence it has collected so far "strongly suggests that Gadhafi government forces went on a spate of arbitrary killing as Tripoli was falling." The justice minister in the rebels' interim government, Mohammed al-Alagi, said the allegations would be investigated and leaders of Gadhafi's military units put on trial.
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AP reporters have witnessed several episodes of rebels mistreating detainees or sub-Saharan Africans suspected of being hired Gadhafi guns. Earlier this week, rebels and their supporters did not help eight wounded men, presumably Gadhafi fighters, who were stranded in a bombed-out fire station in Tripoli's Abu Salim neighborhood, some pleading for water.
Najib Barakat, the health minister in the rebels' interim government, said Sunday that he does not yet have a death toll for the weeklong battle for Tripoli.
Corpses of suspected Gadhafi fighters, especially non-Libyans, are being photographed before burial to allow for possible identification by relatives.
In fighting late Sunday, pro-Gadhafi elements fired Grad rockets at rebel forces gathering in the town of Nawfaliyah, not far from Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte, rebels said.
Rebels gave residents there 10 days to allow them in peacefully or face an assault.
Human Rights Watch said it has evidence indicating regime troops killed at least 17 detainees in an improvised lockup, a building of Libya's internal security service, in the Gargur neighborhood of Tripoli. A doctor who examined the corpses said about half had been shot in the back of the head and that abrasions on ankles and wrists suggested they had been bound.
Gadhafi forces set up another detention center in a hangar near their Yarmouk military base in southern Tripoli.
Abdullah, who was at the hangar Sunday, said he had survived a massacre there last week. He said he had been detained in the city of Zlitan to the east on Aug. 16 and was brought to the hangar with other civilian captives. All were beaten and tortured, he said.
"They didn't even ask us questions," he said, "They just beat us and called us rats."
On Tuesday, he said, more than 120 prisoners were in the hangar when a soldier told them they'd be released at dusk, Abdullah said. A short time later, guards hurled hand grenades inside, then opened fire. He was shot and wounded in his side, but fled the hanger. He hid outside when soldiers returned and fired on other survivors. When they left, he escaped.
In addition to the killings at detention centers, Human Rights Watch said it collected testimony about Gadhafi soldiers randomly shooting civilians. In one incident, on Wednesday, medical lab technician Salah Kikli said he saw Gadhafi fighters pull two unarmed men from an ambulance and kill them.
Al-Alagi, the justice minister, said the reported atrocities did not come as a surprise because the regime acted in a brutal manner in the past. He said that the justice system would have to be "cleansed" before investigations can begin.
It remains unclear who is responsible for some other killings, including of dozens of dark-skinned men whose bodies were found in two areas of Tripoli.
Reporters saw bodies in advanced stages of decomposition at Abu Salim hospital, including in the parking lot, a ward and in the basement. Barakat, the health minister, said a total of 75 corpses were found at the hospital.
