Airwars assessment
On February 26th, 2011, 50 civilians were reported killed and another 50 wounded as a result of heavy artillery shelling on the city of al-Zawiya by Gaddafi forces. Thirty of the wounded were taken to another location, though no other information was provided about casualties.
Al-Jazeera was the only source to report on the strike, quoting a local resident as stating that “mercenaries loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi killed at least 50 civilians in heavy artillery shelling during violent clashes last night with opponents of the regime, while about 50 others were wounded and 30 people were taken to an unknown destination.”
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Summary
Sources (1) [ collapse]
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention Martyrs’ Square (ميدان الشهداء ) being struck in the city of Zawiya (الزاوية), for which the general coordinates are: 32.752250, 12.718912. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.