At least 200 die in Libyan protests
Source: Agencies |
February 21, 2011, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
LIBYAN forces fired machine-guns at mourners marching in a funeral for anti-government protesters in the eastern city of Benghazi yesterday, a day after commandos and foreign mercenaries loyal to longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi pummeled demonstrators with assault rifles and other heavy weaponry.
A doctor at one city hospital said his morgue had received at least 200 dead from six days of unrest.
The doctor said his hospital, one of two in Libya's second-largest city, is out of supplies and cannot treat more than 70 wounded in similar attacks on mourners on Saturday and other clashes.
The crackdown in oil-rich Libya is shaping up to be the most draconian reaction to anti-government protests that began with uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. The protests spread quickly around the region to Bahrain in the Gulf, impoverished Yemen in the Arabian Peninsula, the North African neighbors of Tunisia - Libya, Algeria, Morocco - and outside the Middle East to places including the African nation of Djibouti.
Libya's rebellion by those frustrated with Gadhafi's more than 40 years of rule has spread to more than a half-dozen cities. Benghazi has been at the center of unrest.
In a Saturday report, the official Libyan news agency said authorities have arrested "dozens of foreign elements trained to strike at Libya's stability and security." It said an investigation was already under way. It also said authorities were not ruling out that those elements were connected to what it called an Israeli plot to destabilize countries in North Africa.
Jamal Eddin Mohammed, a Benghazi resident, said thousands marched yesterday to bury at least a dozen people.
A doctor at one city hospital said his morgue had received at least 200 dead from six days of unrest.
The doctor said his hospital, one of two in Libya's second-largest city, is out of supplies and cannot treat more than 70 wounded in similar attacks on mourners on Saturday and other clashes.
The crackdown in oil-rich Libya is shaping up to be the most draconian reaction to anti-government protests that began with uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. The protests spread quickly around the region to Bahrain in the Gulf, impoverished Yemen in the Arabian Peninsula, the North African neighbors of Tunisia - Libya, Algeria, Morocco - and outside the Middle East to places including the African nation of Djibouti.
Libya's rebellion by those frustrated with Gadhafi's more than 40 years of rule has spread to more than a half-dozen cities. Benghazi has been at the center of unrest.
In a Saturday report, the official Libyan news agency said authorities have arrested "dozens of foreign elements trained to strike at Libya's stability and security." It said an investigation was already under way. It also said authorities were not ruling out that those elements were connected to what it called an Israeli plot to destabilize countries in North Africa.
Jamal Eddin Mohammed, a Benghazi resident, said thousands marched yesterday to bury at least a dozen people.
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