“Sometimes I lost hope,” Faraj said. “I thought he was dead.” 
 
 The 25-year-old rebel fighter had disappeared on the front lines of the battle on the eastern coast in March — after peaceful protests against Moammar Gaddafi turned into a war — joining the thousands of people missing in Libya. 
 
 Many have been held for decades. Rebel leaders based here estimate that during the six-month-long conflict, nearly 60,000 more Libyans had disappeared. Even as they continue their search for Gaddafi, the rebels have opened his prisons in Tripoli, freeing thousands. 
 
 But only about 10,000 prisoners have been accounted for, rebel leaders say, leaving families and friends to fear that thousands are in underground prisons or, perhaps, in mass graves. 
 
 “Where in the world are they?” said Shamsiddin Ben-Ali, a spokesman for the Transitional National Council. “It’s a human crisis.” 
 
 A family’s wait ends 
 
 The Abu Salim facility in Tripoli, where Abdul Rauf was held for 48 days, was notorious within Gaddafi’s opaque prison system for its brutality, the place where many of his political opponents vanished. 
 
 In 1996, after inmates at Abu Salim revolted over their living conditions, 1,200 of them were massacred. And it was the arrest in February of a lawyer representing the families of those killed in 1996 that helped spark the uprising, which started in Benghazi and spread across the country. 
 
 After reuniting with his family members Sunday, Abdul Rauf told them that he was beaten and jabbed with electric prods every morning, from dawn until 10 o’clock, when he got a small piece of bread, some cheese, and, sometimes, a hard-boiled egg to share among six people. The first seven days, Abdul Rauf said, he was not allowed to use the bathroom and was given a bottle to use as a latrine. 
 
 He shared a small cell with 70 people, all sleeping on the floor, and he told men who had been locked up for years what was happening outside the prison’s iron gates and towering walls. 
 
 “There’s a revolution in the streets against Gaddafi. The people rose up,” he said he told them. The broken men finally had a glimmer of hope. They hugged him and wept, he said. 
 
 At the airport Sunday morning, just after midnight, male relatives crowded around Abdul Rauf, kissing and hugging him. He said that he had been transferred to the Tajura prison, also in Tripoli, and that guards secretly working against Gaddafi unlocked cell and prison doors the day rebels converged on the capital last week. 
 
 Neighbors stood at their gates waving as the young man rode past them with his father and uncle. Friends fired celebratory shots into the air. In the doorway of their home, his mother, Mariam Layas, and his sisters, Iman and Inas, waited in anticipation. When he entered the house, they showered him with kisses, hugs and tears while other female relatives cupped their hands over their mouths to trill with joy. ||||| Salahuddin, Libya (CNN) -- It's a harrowing story -- even by the standards of blood-soaked Libya. 
 
 Muneer Masoud Own, 33, who made a living doing manual labor, said forces loyal to longtime Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi slaughtered nearly 150 prisoners as rebels closed in on Tripoli last week. 
 
 Charred bodies littered the ground around a warehouse -- roughly 30 feet by 45 feet -- where the detainees were kept. A volunteer who helped remove them, Bashir Own, estimated that he had seen about 150 bodies. He is not related to Muneer Own, who said he barely escaped an ordeal that started about a month ago. 
 
 In early August, Muneer Own said, he and his 30-year-old brother were walking toward their grandfather's home when pro-Gadhafi forces detained them for reasons that were not explained. He said they were handcuffed, blindfolded and put into a warehouse with about 60 others who ranged in age from 17 to 70. 
 
 Over the next 18 days, Gadhafi's forces kept bringing detainees, Own said. Soon, about 175 people were crammed inside the warehouse, near the headquarters of the Libyan military's 32nd Brigade -- a much-feared unit led by one of Gadhafi's sons, Khamis. 
 
 Own said he endured horror and deprivation in the warehouse. 
 
 "I don't know how I survived those moments. They were abusing us and beating us," Own said. "All I was thinking of was going home. I was dreaming of freedom." 
 
 In the three days before he made his escape even as others around him were killed, the detainees had no food or water, Own said. The warehouse filled with the stench of human waste. 
 
 Then, suddenly, Own and the others found a reason to hope: Guards said they would soon release everyone. It was all they talked about for a day or so. 
 
 Just before sunset on the promised day of release, guards opened the warehouse doors, Own said, but the door did not lead to freedom. He said the guards tossed a grenade into the warehouse and started shooting. 
 
 Dozens fell dead. 
 
 Own ran for his life. He said about two dozen others managed to escape, but he lost track of his brother in the chaos. He has not heard from his brother since that day, he said, and assumes that he did not survive. 
 
 When rebels finally took over the base and residents felt safe enough to approach the warehouse, all they found were charred remains. Volunteers said they pulled out at least 150 bodies, the majority of them unrecognizable. 
 
 In another corner of the lot, piles of dug-up earth teemed with maggots. More bodies were found there. 
 
 People found a handful of papers that could help identify the victims, but no one is sure. Many of the victims may remain unknown, their families left without answers to their fate.
– Troops loyal to Moammar Gadhafi massacred some 150 detainees last week, according to volunteers who cleared charred bodies from the warehouse that had apparently served as the detainees’ prison. An escaped prisoner told his story to CNN: He and his brother were handcuffed and blindfolded for no apparent reason while out walking earlier this month. They were thrown into the warehouse with 60 others ages 17 to 70. The number inside quickly reached 175 as loyalists continued to imprison people. The detainees were given no food or water for days, said Muneer Own. Finally, the troops said they would set them free—but instead hurled a grenade at them and opened fire. About 25 people were able to escape, Own said; his brother apparently was not one of them. The mass of bodies was discovered when rebels eventually took over the area. Many remain unidentified, part of a growing number of prisoners whose whereabouts remain unknown, notes the Washington Post. Thousands—some of whom have been jailed for decades—could be in underground prisons or mass graves, rebels fear. Click through for one family’s story.