Video posted on Facebook has shown Khalifa Haftar giving instructions to field commanders to kill captives without mercy 

Wanis Bu Khamada addressing a tribal group to give excuses for the shocking videos of crimes
Wanis Bu Khamada’s son (R) posing with Jalal al-Makhzoum’s hanged corpse outside Al-Saiqa camp

Fighters with psychiatric disorder are fighting alongside Khalifa Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army, the commander of Al-Saiqa Forces Wanis Bu Khamada has declared, while he was addressing a tribal group to give excuses for the shocking videos of crimes committed by the army in Benghazi.

He claimed that graves had been exhumed to search for missing people, but he failed to mention exhumation of senior Benghazi Shura commander Jalal al-Makhzoum’s corpse and desecration of his dead body by Al-Saiqa forces.

Ironically, a photograph posted on Facebook showed Wanis Bu Khamada’s son posing with Jalal al-Makhzoum’s hanged corpse outside Al-Saiqa camp.  

Photo: Wanis Bu Khamada’s son (R) posing with Jalal al-Makhzoum’s hanged corpse outside Al-Saiqa camp

“Most of our youth have been fighting for more than three years, we have people with psychiatric disorder; I have fighters who have not left the frontlines since the start of clashes against the Kharijites,” he said, adding the crimes committed by the army were out of control and a reaction to ISIS crimes.

War crimes were committed by east Libyan army in Ganfouda district including ISIS-style murder of captives, burning and mutilation of bodies and exhumation of corpses of opposition fighters.

The heinous crimes in Benghazi were deplored by Human Right Watch and Amnesty International and said they may amount to war crimes.

A video shared widely on Facebook has shown Khalifa Haftar giving instructions to field commanders to kill captives without mercy.

“All weapons are allowed, no mercy, don’t take prisoners, we have no prisons here, the battlefield is the battlefield,” Haftar said.

Likewise, spokesperson of the army Ahmed Al-Mismari gave excuses for Ganfouda crimes and said in his weekly press conference on Wednesday that such crimes have become war behavior.

“In Abu Ghraib prison, there were torture of prisoners and mutilation of dead bodies. Also Italy beheaded Libyan Mujahidin during its war in Libya. In 2011 there were violations of human rights from both sides; the murder of Gaddafi is a war crime,” he said.

Al-Mismari indicated that ISIS has planted brutal killings in their thoughts while army fighters had not attended training in psychology.