“The chief of staff has no control over the town and therefore armed men are able to prevent families from coming back”, the minister was quoted as saying by AFP on Monday.

Juwaili said the hilltop town was near-deserted as a result of the fighting and that the small number of people who remain are living in dire conditions.

In his first public statement on Bani Walid, Juwaili claimed that as many as 30,000 people had been displaced by the conflict out of a town reckoned to be home to some 80,000 residents, AFP reported.

Fighting in Bani Walid this month displaced tens of thousands of people, Jueili noted, including 30,000 who fled to the nearby town of Tarhuna and 10,000 who went to the capital.

Bani Walid, 185 kilometres (115 miles) southeast of Tripoli, was one of the last towns to fall to NATO-backed rebels in the 2011 conflict that toppled and killed Gaddafi.

The current violence began in early July, when unknown people from Bani Walid reportedly abducted two journalists from Misrata. Armed groups from Misrata went to retrieve the journalists, one of whom was Omran Shaban, who was credited with discovering Gaddafi in a drainpipe in Sirte one year ago. Shaban was reportedly shot and detained in Bani Walid, along with another man. The two men were released two months later, on September 13, after a negotiated deal. Shaban was then flown to France for medical care but he died there on September 25. Reports circulated that he was tortured in custody – reports that Bani Walid leaders deny.

On the day of Shaban’s death, Libya’s newly elected parliament, the General National Congress, passed Resolution No. 7, which authorized the Interior and Defense Ministries to “use all their powers” to apprehend Shaban’s alleged killers, as well as other people in Bani Walid suspected of crimes committed before and during the 2011 conflict. Government forces and aligned armed groups, mostly from Misrata, surrounded the town. The armed groups are under the umbrella of Libya Shield – a grouping aligned with the Defense Ministry.

Bani Walid and Misrata have a history of antagonistic relations.

Clashes between pro-government forces and Bani Walid fighters this month killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds, escalating tribal tensions and highlighting the difficulties of achieving reconciliation.

The 50-page report presented by Human Rights Watch, “Death of a Dictator: Bloody Vengeance in Sirte,” details the final hours of Muammar Gaddafi’s life and the circumstances under which he was killed. It presents evidence that Misrata-based militias captured and disarmed members of the Gaddafi convoy and, after bringing them under their total control, subjected them to brutal beatings. They then executed at least 66 captured members of the convoy at the nearby Mahari Hotel. The evidence indicates that opposition militias took Gaddafi’s wounded son Mutassim from Sirte to Misrata and killed him there.

“Our findings call into question the assertion by Libyan authorities that Muammar Gaddafi was killed in crossfire, and not after his capture,” said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch. .

Among the most powerful new evidence is a mobile phone video clip filmed by opposition militia members that shows a large group of captured convoy members in detention, being cursed at and abused. Human Rights Watch used hospital morgue photos to establish that at least 17 of the detainees visible in the phone video were later executed at the Mahari Hotel.

Under the laws of war, the killing of captured combatants is a war crime, and Libyan civilian and military authorities have an obligation to investigate war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law, according to Human Rights Watch.

These killings constitute the largest documented execution of detainees by anti-Gaddafi forces during the eight-month conflict in Libya, Human Rights Watch said.

A review of the available evidence regarding the deaths of Muammar and Mutassim Gaddafi calls into question the official account by the Libyan authorities, who claim that the two, as well as all others who perished at the scene, died during fierce crossfire. Video footage shows that Muammar Gaddafi was captured alive but bleeding heavily from a head wound, believed to have been caused by shrapnel from a grenade thrown by his own guards that exploded in their midst, killing his defense minister, Abu Bakr Younis.

In the footage, Muammar Gaddafi is severely beaten by opposition forces and stabbed with a bayonet in his buttocks, causing more injuries and bleeding. By the time he is filmed being loaded into an ambulance half-naked, he appears lifeless.

According to the evidence collected by Human Rights Watch, Mutassim Gaddafi was also captured alive at the scene of the battle, trying to break out of the siege by opposition forces. He was wounded and then filmed being transported by members of a Misrata-based opposition militia to the city of Misrata, where he was again filmed in a room, smoking cigarettes and drinking water while engaged in a hostile conversation with his capturers. By the evening, his dead body, with a new wound on his throat that was not visible in the prior video footage, was being publicly displayed in Misrata.

“In case after case we investigated, the individuals had been videotaped alive by the opposition fighters who held them, and then found dead hours later,” Bouckaert said. “Our strongest evidence for these executions comes from the footage filmed by the opposition forces, and the physical evidence at the Mahari Hotel, where the 66 bodies were found.”

“Despite initial pledges by top Libyan officials that the events would be investigated, Human Rights Watch has not seen any evidence that any actual inquiry is under way or has been carried out,” HRW says.

“One of Libya’s greatest challenges is to bring its well-armed militias under control and end their abuses,” Bouckaert said. “A good first step would be to investigate the mass executions of October 20, 2011, the most serious abuse by opposition forces documented so far.”