 On 18 August, rebels claimed to have found a mass grave consisting of 150 civilians executed by Gaddafi's forces near Tawergha.On 19 August, three rebels were killed in fighting around Tawergha.A report published in "The Sunday Telegraph" on 11 September claimed that the town had been the target of ethnic cleansing on the part of the Misrata Brigade, with virtually the entire population of the town forced to leave after its takeover by anti-Gaddafi forces and a number of refugee camps crowded with Tawergha's former residents being subjected to raids and arbitrary arrests by opposition fighters.