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BBC News Africa 18 February 2011 Last updated at 15:41 GMT Libya protests: 'Mass gathering' in Benghazi Amateur video posted online purportedly shows unrest in Libya Witnesses in the Libyan city of Benghazi say thousands of people have gathered for an anti-government protest outside the city's courthouse. There are also reports that some prisoners escaped from a city jail but that 100 were later arrested. Benghazi has been the scene of protests in recent days, with reports that at least 15 people were killed in clashes with security forces on Thursday. Large protests are rare in Libya, where dissent is seldom allowed. A leading pro-government newspaper, Al-Zahf Al-Akhdar, called for tough action against the protesters. "Any risk from these miniscule groups [protesters] - this people and the noble revolutionary power will violently and thunderously respond," the paper said. "The people's power, the Jamahiriya [system of rule], the revolution, and Colonel Gaddafi are all red lines and those who try to cross or come near these lines are suicidal and playing with fire." Pro-democracy protests have recently swept through several Arab nations, with the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt forced from power amid growing unrest. The US-based Human Rights Watch said at least 24 people had been killed across Libya in unrest on Wednesday and Thursday. Many others were wounded in the clashes between security forces and protesters, the campaign group said. 'Buildings on fire' Witnesses told the BBC there were no police at the protest at the courthouse, though security forces have been widely deployed around the city. The protesters said they planned to march to the hospital later to take 23 bodies to the cemetery. Other witness reports spoke of three deaths in clashes in another part of the city, and of more people killed elsewhere in Benghazi and al-Bayda. Two exile groups told Reuters news agency that al-Bayda was now "out of the control of the Gaddafi regime". The reports cannot be independently verified. Meanwhile the chief editor of the Quryna newspaper, Ramadan Briki, told the BBC that some prisoners had escaped from Benghazi's al-Kuifya prison and set fire to the local prosecutor's office, a bank and a police station. Police later arrested 100. It was not clear if any prisoners remained at large, Mr Briki said. A doctor at Benghazi's Jalla hospital told the BBC that he had seen 15 bodies - all dead from gunshot wounds - by the time he left the hospital in the early hours of Friday. He said one of them was a 13-year-old boy. Other witnesses said six police cars in front of the hospital had been set on fire by relatives of the victims. It has been impossible for the BBC to verify witness reports on the ground. However, our correspondent Jon Leyne in Cairo says violent confrontations are reported to have spread to five Libyan cities in demonstrations so far, but not yet to Tripoli, the capital, in any large numbers. Funerals of some of those killed are expected to be held on Friday in Benghazi and al-Bayda, which correspondents say could spur more protests. Activists supporting Libya's leader, Muammar Gaddafi, have also been out on the streets in Tripoli, chanting pro-government slogans in Green Square. Col Gaddafi briefly visited the square in the early hours of Friday, according to images aired by state TV. He is the Arab world's longest-serving leader, having ruled oil-rich Libya since a coup in 1969. ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
