Father slit throats of three daughters in 'honour killing' after they were raped by Gaddafi's troops

• Human rights group uncovers widespread war crimes by loyalist forces
• Investigators told children perched on top of tanks as human shields
• Soldiers 'set up rape camp at school where dead sisters were attacked'

By LIZ HAZELTON

Last updated at 1:49 AM on 31st August 2011

A father slit the throat of his three teenage daughters in an ‘honour killing’ after they were raped by Gaddafi loyalists during the siege of the port city of Misrata.

Allegations of the shocking executions are contained in a report by the respected Physicians for Human Rights group into war crimes and atrocities in the embattled city, which faced two months of being cut off from the rest of Libya.

The father is said to have carried out the ‘honour killings’ because of his humiliation and shame at the rape of the sisters – aged 15, 17 and 18 – in Tomina, on the outskirts of Misrata. The victims were not named.

Shattered: Human rights investigators interviewed survivors of the siege of Misrata and revealed widespread war crimes by Gaddafi's men

The horrific story was one of a number to emerge from Misrata after the group sent in a team of interviewers in June to catalogue human rights abuses just after Libyan forces expelled Gaddafi loyalists. 

Researchers from PHR were also told that Gaddafi's men:

• forced numerous civilians to act as human shields
• perched children on top of tanks to deter Nato attacks
• used rape as a weapon of war with deadly consequences

The human rights group, which is based in Boston, concluded that there was widespread evidence of war crimes during the siege.

Hundreds of civilians died in the siege: Here seven members of the Al Nour family - including Abdul Mufta, eight, and Nadia, five - are buried after their house was bombed by Gaddafi's troops

'Four eyewitnesses reported that (Gadhafi) troops forcibly detained 107 civilians and used them as human shields to guard military munitions from Nato attacks south of Misrata,' said the report, which was released today.

 

More...

• 'Gaddafi's daughter-in-law threw boiling water over my head after I refused to beat her child': Horrific burns of nanny abandoned in dictator's mansion
• Gaddafi's family flee to Algeria in cloak-and-dagger desert escape - but is the dictator with them?
• Gaddafi family album: Photos found in burned out home inside Tripoli bunker give insight into dictator's life
• Gaddafi's girl executioner: Nisreen, 19, admits shooting 11 rebel prisoners, now she is shackled to hospital bed awaiting justice
• Gaddafi's daughter Aisha 'gives birth to baby girl' hours after fleeing to Algeria
• Mad Dog of the desert: Gaddafi 'escaped rebel guns and fled to Sahara stronghold with band of loyal fighters four days ago'

'One father told PHR how (Gadhafi) soldiers forced his two young children to sit on a military tank and threatened the family: "You'll stay here, and if Nato attacks us, you'll die, too."'

Richard Sollom, who was the lead author on the report, concluded that no one had evidence that rape was widespread - but the fear of sexual assault was endemic.

'One witness reported that (Gaddafi) forces transformed an elementary school into a detention site where they reportedly raped women and girls as young as 14 years old,' the report noted.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2031710/Libya-Father-slit-throats-girls-raped-Gaddafis-men.html#ixzz1WahzchFq