Libyan rebels announced Sunday the discovery of a mass grave in Tripoli containing the bodies of 1,700 prisoners allegedly massacred by the Gaddafi regime in 1996.

The victims were apparently killed for their uprising at the Abu Salim jail, said Khalid Sharif, spokesman for the National Transition Council's military council, according to AFP.

Sharif said people who know about the mass grave led them to the mass grave two weeks ago.

"The groups that did the killing, that took part, some of them are in the custody of the revolutionaries and led us to this place," Sharif said, according to Deutsche Welles. "Some of those involved in burying them also led us here."

The NTC, now the de facto administration in Libya, has set up a committee to identify the remains from the mass grave. Salim al-Farjani, a member of the committee, appealed for international help to do the meticulous DNA testing.

The DNA from the corpse will be compared with the DNA of their family members to establish the identities of the victims, Deutsche Welles quoted Dr. Osman Abdul Jalil, a medical official, as saying.

The massacre of the Abu Salim prisoners was among the triggers of the Libya uprising against Moammar Gaddafi, who remains in hiding after rebels seized control of the capital Tripoli last month.

A lawyer representing the massacre victims was arrested prompting families of the victims to protest against the government in Benghazi in February.