Gadhafi town falls to rebels
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: A volunteer who helped remove corpses says he saw about 150
- Thousands of rebel fighters are on the outskirts of Gadhafi's hometown
- A warehouse full of the charred remains of civilians is discovered outside Tripoli
- A survivor says forces commanded by Gadhafi's son committed the massacre
Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Rebel fighters gave loyalists in Moammar Gadhafi's hometown until Monday to disarm or face "liberation," an opposition spokesman said.
Thousands of rebels gathered Sunday on the outskirts of the fallen dictator's birthplace of Sirte, even as one of Gadhafi's sons offered to negotiate an end to the months-long war.
Gadhafi's forces have been ordered to disarm and allow rebel fighters to enter the city, said Ahmed Bani, a National Transitional Council military spokesman.
The ultimatum follows days of fighting and reports of negotiations between rebels and loyalists to surrender the city, east of Tripoli.
But as rebel fighters moved to quash the last pockets of resistance, evidence emerged Sunday of atrocities allegedly committed by Gadhafi's regime in its waning days of power with the discovery of a warehouse full of charred bodies.
Forces commanded by Gadhafi's son Khamis killed an estimated 150 captive civilians as they retreated last week, hurling grenades and spraying bullets into a building full of men they had promised to release, a survivor said.
The massacre took place August 22, the survivor, Muneer Masoud Own, told CNN.
Rebels advancing on Tripoli discovered the bodies charred beyond recognition in a warehouse next to the military base. In addition, a resident who lives nearby told CNN that at least 22 bodies were found in a ditch near the base, but it was not clear whether those remains were connected to the killings at the warehouse.
CNN cannot independently verify the claims.
The base is on the main road from Tripoli to the city's airport, which the rebels secured Friday after days of heavy fighting.
Own, 33, said he and his 30-year-old brother were held there for 18 days after they were arrested by Gadhafi's forces. He said there were about 70 others, ranging in age between 70 and 17, held at the warehouse. He said some told him they were there for up to six months.
He said when he was first brought to the warehouse, there were about 60 to 70 others being held with him. He said some told him they were there for up to six months. By the time the rebels advanced on Tripoli, the number of captives swelled to about 175, ranging in age between 70 and 17, Own said.
With rebel forces pushing into the capital on Monday, their guards told them they would be released by sunset, Own said. Instead, he said, just before sunset, the guards opened fire on the men inside, some of whom managed to escape.
He said he has been unable to locate his brother.
Bashir Own, who is not related to Muneer Masoud Own, said he worked as a volunteer removing the bodies from the warehouse. He estimated there were about 150 bodies.
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Gadhafi and the majority of his family have not been seen since rebels advanced on Tripoli, and are now being hunted by rebel forces after a six-month revolt backed by Western airpower.
Rebel fighters picked through his family's seaside villas on Sunday, finding high-end stereo equipment, hot tubs and wines valued at hundreds of dollars a bottle, despite an official ban on alcohol.
They also found a horribly scarred Ethiopian maid, who cared for the children of Gadhafi's son Hannibal.
The maid, Shwygar Mullah, told CNN that Hannibal Gadhafi's wife Aline twice expressed her displeasure with her work by scalding her with boiling water -- then refused to get her medical attention, leaving her scalp and face covered in a mosaic of scars and raw wounds.
In one instance, Aline lost her temper when her daughter wouldn't stop crying and Mullah refused to beat the child.
Another of the Gadhafi household staff, a man from Bangladesh who did not want to be identified, corroborated Mullah's story and said he also was regularly beaten and slashed with knives.
The allegations by Mullah came the same day that another of Gadhafi's sons, businessman Saadi Gadhafi, offered to negotiate an end to the war with the rebels. He has made previous offers, though this time it appeared he was prepared to cut loose his father and his brother, once assumed to be the senior Gadhafi's heir.
"If (the rebels) agree to cooperate to save the country together (without my father and Saif) then it will be easy and fast. I promise!" Saadi Gadhafi said in an email to CNN's Nic Robertson.
Saadi Gadhafi said the opposition cannot "build a new country without having us in the table."
Meanwhile, the National Transitional Council announced Sunday that it won't allow the extradition of Abdelbeset al Megrahi, the man convicted of blowing up a Pan Am jet in 1988.
"We will not give any Libyan citizen to the West," NTC Justice Minister Mohammed al-Alagi said.
A number of leading United States senators have been highly critical of Scotland's decision to release al Megrahi from prison in 2009 on the grounds that he had cancer and was not likely to live more than three months.
"Speculation about al Megrahi in recent days has been unhelpful, unnecessary and indeed ill-informed," the Scottish government said in a statement released Monday.
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