Mourners in Libya’s second--largest city of Benghazi were yesterday burying some of the dozens of protesters shot dead by security forces in the worst unrest of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s four decades in power.
Human Rights Watch said 35 people were killed in the city late on Friday, adding to dozens who had already died in a fierce crackdown on three days of protests inspired by uprisings in neighboring Egypt and Tunisia.
Friday’s deaths in Benghazi happened when security forces opened fire on people protesting after funeral processions for victims of earlier violence, the group said.
The New York-based watchdog said the killings on Friday took to 84 its estimate for the total death toll after three days of protests focused on the restive region around Benghazi, 1,000km east of Tripoli.
Asked by Qatar-based al-Jazeera television how many people were to be buried yesterday, Benghazi cleric Abellah al-Warfali said he had a list of 16 people, most with bullet wounds to the head and chest.
“I saw with my own eyes a tank crushing two people in a car,” he said. “They didn’t do any harm to anyone.”
The private Quryna newspaper, which is based in Benghazi and has been linked to one of Qaddafi’s sons, said 24 people were killed in Benghazi on Friday.
It said security forces opened fire to stop protesters attacking the police headquarters and a military detachment where weapons were stored.
“The guards were forced to use bullets,” the paper said.
The government has released no casualty figures, nor made any official comment on the violence.
Away from the eastern region, the country appeared calm. A -government-run newspaper blamed the protests on Zionism and the “traitors of the West,” while officials said foreign media were exaggerating the scale of the violence in the east.
Libya-watchers say an Egypt-style nationwide revolt is unlikely because Qaddafi has oil cash to smooth over social problems and he is also still respected in much of the country.
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.
A Benghazi resident, who lives near the city center, said shooting could be heard on Friday night and that protesters attacked and damaged the state-run radio station near his home.
“I heard shooting last night until midnight,” said the resident, who did not want to be identified. “The radio station has been attacked ... We do not know what we are going to do.”
He said most people were staying inside their houses because they were too frightened to go out.
The security forces in the streets were wearing yellow hats, the witness said, which are not part of standard Libyan police or army uniform.
“They are not Libyans,” he said.
Another Benghazi resident said from the city: “There are still a large number of protesters standing in front of Benghazi court. They have decided they are not going to move.”
A security source said that there were still clashes going on in the region between Benghazi and the town of al-Bayda, about 200km away, where local people said dozens have also been killed by security forces in the past 72 hours.
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