Libya commander says 50,000 dead in uprising

Africa Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

TRIPOLI – An estimated 50,000 people have been killed since the beginning of Libya’s uprising to oust Muammar Gaddafi six months ago, a military commander with the country’s interim ruling council said on Tuesday.

“About 50,000 people were killed since the start of the uprising,” Colonel Hisham Buhagiar, commander of the anti-Gaddafi troops who advanced out of the Western Mountains and took Tripoli a week ago, told Reuters.

“In Misrata and Zlitan between 15,000 and 17,000 were killed and Jebel Nafusa (the Western Mountains) took a lot of casualties. We liberated about 28,000 prisoners. We presume that all those missiong are dead,” he said.

(Reuters)