TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Dozens of protesters were killed in clashes with Libyan security forces in the eastern city of Benghazi yesterday, a witness said, in the worst unrest in Muammar Gaddafi’s four decades in power.
Al Jazeera television earlier reported that security forces opening fire at a funeral killed at least 15 people in Libya’s second city.
“Dozens were killed … not 15, dozens. We are in the midst of a massacre here,” the witness said. The man said he helped take the victims to a local hospital.
The Libyan authorities have not allowed foreign journalists into the country since the protests against Gaddafi erupted, and the witness’s account could not be independently verified.
A doctor in Benghazi, the epicentre of protests against Gaddafi’s four decades in power, told Al Jazeera that his hospital had received 15 bodies and was treating a host of wounded following the shootings.
“This is not a well equipped hospital and these injuries come in waves. All are very serious injuries, involving the head, the chest and the abdomen. They are bullet injuries from high-velocity rifles,” the doctor said.
Before the latest reports, Human Rights Watch said 84 people had been killed over the past three days in a fierce security crackdown mounted in response to anti-government protests that sought to emulate uprisings in neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia.
A local resident said security forces were confined to a compound, which he called the Command Centre, from which snipers were firing at protesters.
“They shot dead three protesters from that building today,” the witness, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters.
“Right now, the only military presence in Benghazi is confined to the Command Centre Complex in the city. The rest of the city is liberated,” he said.
“Thousands and thousands of people have gathered in front of Benghazi’s court house. There are now makeshift clinics, ambulances, speakers, electricity. It’s fully equipped.
“There is no shortage of food although not all stores are open. Banks are shut. All of the revolutionary committee (local government) offices and police stations in the city have been burned,” he said.
The account could not be independently verified. A security source earlier gave a different version, saying the situation in the Benghazi region was “80 per cent under control”.
The violence was concentrated around Benghazi, some 1,000 km (625 miles) east of the capital, where support for Gaddafi traditionally has been weaker than in the rest of the country. There was no sign of a nationwide revolt. In London, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he had reports that heavy weapons fire and sniper units were being used against demonstrators. “This is clearly unacceptable and horrifying,” he said in a statement.
The private Quryna newspaper, which is based in Benghazi and has been linked to one of Gaddafi’s sons, said 24 people were killed in Benghazi on Friday. It said security forces had opened fire to stop protesters attacking the police headquarters and a military base where weapons were stored.
“The guards were forced to use bullets,” the paper said.
Italy’s Ansa news agency quoted an Italian witness in Benghazi as saying the city was “completely out of control”.
“All the government and institutional buildings and a bank have been burnt, and the rebels have ransacked and destroyed everything. There’s no one on the streets, not even the police,” said the witness, who declined to be identified for security reasons.
The government has not released any casualty figures or made any official comment on the violence.
A group of 50 religious Libyan scholars appealed for an end to the violence. A copy of the appeal was made available to Reuters. Away from the eastern region, Libya appeared calm.
In Green Square in the centre of Tripoli, next to the walled old city, several hundred people gathered, waving portraits of Gaddafi and chanting “Our revolutionary leader!” and “We follow your path”, a Reuters reporter said.
A state-controlled newspaper said the violence was part of “the dirty plans and the conspiracies designed by America and Zionism and the traitors of the West”.
State television showed footage of one of Gaddafi’s sons, Saadi Gaddafi, who was this week put in charge of Benghazi, touring Green Square. He was cheered by about 1,000 people, most of them supporters of the capital’s two main soccer clubs, Al-Ahly and Al-Ettihad, as he toured the square on the roof of a car, waving and shaking the hands of supporters.
The crowd chanted “God, Libya and Muammar only.”
Libya-watchers say an Egypt-style nationwide revolt is unlikely because Gaddafi has oil cash to smooth over social problems, and is still respected in much of the country.
Noman Benotman, a former dissident Islamist, told Reuters the government was talking to tribal leaders in Benghazi to try to defuse tensions. But he said if the authorities decided to restore order by force it would be done “toughly”.
Foreign journalists have not been allowed to enter Libya since the unrest began, local reporters have been barred from travelling to Benghazi and mobile phone connections frequently have been out of service.
