?Dozen more killed in east Libya?

Libyan security forces killed 35 people in the eastern city of Benghazi, Human Rights Watch said.

|||

Tripoli - Libyan security forces killed 35 people in the eastern city of Benghazi late on Friday, Human Rights Watch said, adding to dozens already killed in the worst unrest of Muammar Gaddafi's four decades in power.

Protests against Gaddafi's rule, inspired by uprisings in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt, broke out this week for the first time in years but were met with a fierce security crackdown, especially in the restive east of the country.

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 against a ruling elite which some in the east say has hoarded Libya's oil wealth and denied political freedom.

The deaths in Benghazi on Friday happened when security forces opened fire on people protesting after funeral processions for people killed in earlier violence, the group said. There has been no official word on the number of dead.

“We put out a call to all the doctors in Benghazi to come to the hospital and for everyone to give blood because I've never seen anything like this before,” it quoted a senior hospital official in Benghazi as saying.

A Benghazi resident contacted by Reuters, who lives near the city centre, said shooting could be heard last 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 told Reuters.

Another Benghazi resident told Reuters by telephone 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.”

Away from the eastern region, there were no reliable reports of protests or violence and state television on Friday broadcast demonstrations in Tripoli in support of Gaddafi.

Sermons at Friday prayers shown on television blamed the protests on forces of “Zionism and imperialism” which preachers said were trying to divide the country.

Support for Gaddafi in the region that includes Benghazi, about 1,000 km east of Tripoli, has historically been weaker than in the rest of the country.

“Special forces who have a very strong allegiance to Gaddafi are still fighting desperately to gain control, to gain ground and the people are fighting them street by street,” the BBC quoted Mohammed, a resident of Benghazi, as saying.

The broadcaster said residents in Benghazi reported there was no electricity in parts of the city and that tanks were stationed outside the court building.

Libya-watchers say an Egypt-style nationwide revolt is unlikely because Gaddafi has oil cash to smooth over social problems and he is also still respected in much of the country.

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 to towns in the east of the country have frequently been out of service.

Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera said its signal was being jammed on several frequencies and its website had been blocked in Libya.

Opposition activists said late on Friday that protesters fought troops for control of the nearby town of Al Bayda, about 200 km from Benghazi, where townspeople said they were burying 14 people who were killed in earlier clashes.

Residents said that by Friday evening the streets were calm but there were conflicting accounts about whether opposition activists or security forces were in control of the town.

“The situation is bad. There is no bread and no gasoline,” one person in the town told Reuters late on Friday.

The privately owned Quryna newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying the General People's Congress, or parliament, would adopt a “major shift” in government policy including appointing new people to senior positions. It gave no details and the sources could not be clarified.

Text messages sent to mobile phone subscribers thanked people who ignored calls to join protests. “We congratulate our towns which understood that interfering with national unity threatens the future of generations,” it said. - Reuters

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/dozen-more-killed-in-east-libya-1.1028992

Endangered species Motherwell Burlesque Paul Myners Fifa Christmas and New Year