Some of the killing "may amount to crimes against humanity" according to the United Nations Security Council[2] and as of March 2011[update], is under investigation by the International Criminal Court.
[8] On February 25, Navi Pillay, the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations, said that reports indicated that "thousands may have been killed or injured".
[16] On February 23, a group of 22 government soldiers attempted to make a breakout from an air base near Derna, which had been under siege for days by rebel fighters.
[18] Toward the end of the Battle of Misrata (February 18, 2011 – May 15, 2011), at least 27 sub-Saharan Africans from Mali, Niger or Chad, who were accused of being mercenaries, were executed by rebel forces.
The BBC stated that "the rebels felt they had a 'private understanding' of the NATO mission, [believing] that the western world has joined them in a campaign of regime change."
In January 2013, the new Libyan government stated, based on unfinished research, that 4,700 rebel fighters and a similar number of loyalist soldiers were killed during the conflict.
Also, the number of civilians reported to had been killed in NATO air-strikes could be smaller because it was proven that some of the previous government-announced tolls from individual strikes were exaggerated.
[121] Alan Kuperman, associate professor of Public Affairs at the University of Austin, calculated that about 1,000 Libyans, including civilians, rebels and soldiers, died between the start of the rebellion in mid-February and NATO intervention in mid-March.
[125] The total number of people killed includes protesters, armed belligerents, and civilians: [clarification needed] Casualty recording