Libyan rebels uncover grim find in Tripoli - ABC Online

ELIZABETH JACKSON: To Libya now where rebels appear to have made important strategic advances in the capital, but Tripoli has also become the scene of a gruesome discovery.

A hospital full of abandoned patients left to die and rot in their beds.

No-one knows the whereabouts of Colonel Moamer Gaddafi, but there are reports that billions of dollars are missing from the Libyan National Investment Fund.

Lexi Metherell compiled this report.

LEXI METHERELL: Fierce fighting has left rebels in control of the Tripoli suburb of Abu Salim.

There, they've made a horrifying discovery: more than 200 decomposing bodies in the local hospital.

The BBC's Wyre Davies says medical staff may have fled as gun battles raged nearby.

WYRE DAVIES: This is one of the most distressing sights I have ever seen. In this hospital, around the hospital, there are hundreds of dead people, men, women and children. We don't know exactly who they are. Some are civilians, some are fighters, some are apparently African mercenaries.

These people were brought to the hospital dead, some alive, some with very bad injuries. People were left here to die and they've been left in this state now for almost a week. The stench is appalling.

LEXI METHERELL: Some residents like Osama Pilil are accusing the regime of murder.

OSAMA PILIL: These dead bodies since five days in the hospital. Nobody's taking care of them to bring them to the mortuary, to bury them, to identify them. We need help, please, it's very urgent.

LEXI METHERELL: Human Rights Watch is monitoring the situation.

The campaign group's Sidney Kwiram, has been examining the scene near Moamer Gaddafi's captured Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli.

SIDNEY KWIRAM: We're seeing evidence that there are problems here. We are finding groups of bodies dead in some signs of execution. Obviously there's a lot of fighting as well and so it's important to look at the wounds and talk to witnesses. This one has his hands bound, civilian clothes. Clearly he's been here for a while.

LEXI METHERELL: The rebels appear to have made more solid gains in Tripoli.

As well as neighbourhoods, including Abu Salim, they have captured a key military barracks, controlled by one of Gaddafi's sons, Khamis.

But the airport remains heavily contested.

Al Jazeera correspondent Zeina Khodr says it's not clear what's happened to Gaddafi loyalists in the capital.

ZEINA KHODR: In those areas there are lots of Gaddafi loyalists. We're not just talking about men in Gaddafi's army, we're not talking about mercenaries, we're talking about civilians. So-called volunteers who the state actually armed, and they believe that some of them are just lying low, they could be in their homes. So while the rebels have managed to push forward, the fight is far from over.

LEXI METHERELL: And Gaddafi's whereabouts remains unknown, but speculation centres on his birthplace, Sirte.

As rebels prepared to mount an offensive on the town, British jets fired missiles at a large headquarters bunker.

A former Gaddafi official Mahmoud Badi says billions of dollars are missing from the Libyan national investment fund. He suspects it's been stolen by former government ministers.

Meanwhile, there's been a bizarre find in Gaddafi's compound. The dictator had expressed his admiration for the former US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice.

Now rebels have uncovered a scrapbook filled with pictures of her.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Lexi Metherell with that report.