REUTERS

Decomposing bodies lie outside the Ibn Sina hospital in Sirte on October 15.

Sirte - Dr Abdel Latif Milad was showing his visitors around a war-battered hospital in Muammar Gaddafi's hometown Sirte when a window let in the stench of nine bodies decomposing in the sun outside.

"I don't know where they came from or who left them there," said the doctor, adding that they had been dumped in mysterious circumstances in the hospital grounds.

"Sorry but my priority is the living, not the dead," said Milad, spinning off to do his rounds.

The gruesome discovery only adds to the sense of unease prevailing in Ibn Sina hospital in the south of Sirte, the besieged bastion of forces loyal to fugitive leader Gaddafi.

More than 100 patients, suspected to be pro-Gaddafi fighters, were discovered at the shell-struck hospital when new regime forces seized the establishment last week.

Since then, a reinforcement team has battled to get the hospital up and running again. Most of the patients were evacuated at the insistence of international humanitarian groups.

A man injured during fighting between pro- and anti-Gaddafi forces walks along a corridor in Ibn Sina hospital in Sirte on October 15.

REUTERS

The International Committee of the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has inspected the hospital to ensure patients were being well treated despite having been branded "enemies" by Libya's new regime forces.

"The strong presence of foreigners acts as a deterrent," said Barbara Fredericks, the MSF coordinator for Misrata, the closest major city to Sirte.

Behind her, a young man whose face and body were ravaged by burns strolled aimlessly through the hallways.

"We have already evacuated 35 people to Misrata and Tripoli in three days," said Karen Strugg who heads the Red Cross office in Misrata, adding that the rest should be transferred from Monday.

Back in the Ibn Sina hospital courtyard littered with trash and debris, a small team of doctors took on the task of wrapping the nine decomposing bodies in a white bag, laying them on stretchers.

In a cloud of flies, a doctor with a blue blouse, surgical mask and latex gloves examined the dead, dressed in civilian clothing but with no identification papers.

"At least three of them were shot in the head," said Dr Imad al-Fassi, while an AFP reporter saw one with a smashed skull.

Doctors said the time of death dated back to "at least a week".

No one at the hospital seemed to know who they were, who killed them, or why they were doing at the foot of the hospital wall.

Half-an-hour later, several members of a Libyan NGO set up to provide medical support to new regime forces of the National Transitional Council (NTC) reached the hospital.

"We are here to recover the bodies," said Faraz Mahdawi. "Some of them were executed. We must bury them."

Mahdawi was convinced the corpses were those of NTC fighters killed by Gaddafi loyalists.

But a foreign observer warned against jumping to conclusions. "It could also be the other way around. It's hard to tell without DNA tests," he stressed.

"These kind of cases are likely to increase. We must verify absolutely everything before announcing anything," he said amid rumours that 18 corpses, apparently of executed men, had been found in Sirte, near the hospital. - Sapa-AFP