Sirte, 24 Oct. (AKI) -At least 53 supporters of Muammar Gaddafi whose bodies were found in a hotel in Sirte are believed to have been executed by anti-Gaddafi fighters, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.

The bodies were found in the abandoned Mahari Hotel in a neighbourhood of Sirte under control by transitional government fighters prior to the city's fall on 20 October, the New York-based organisation said in a statement posted on its website.

"We found 53 decomposing bodies, apparently Gaddafi supporters, at an abandoned hotel in Sirte, and some had their hands bound behind their backs when they were shot,” said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch, who investigated the killings. “This requires the immediate attention of the Libyan authorities to investigate what happened and hold accountable those responsible.”

The around the hotel had been in rebel hands since the beginning of October, the statement said.

"The bodies were clustered together, apparently where they had been killed, on the grass in the sea-view garden of the hotel," Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch called on Libyan authorities to investigate the deaths.

Ousted dictator Gaddafi on Thursday was captured and killed in Sirte, his hometown that fell into anti-Gaddafi fighters' hands on the same day signalling the end of an eight-month civil war.

The National Transitional Council, Libya's anti-Gaddafi leadership, on Sunday officially declared Libya ''liberated" after around 42 years of totalitarian rule.