Libyan protesters have defied a fierce crackdown by Moammar Gadhafi’s regime by returning to a square outside a court building in the flashpoint city of Benghazi to demand the overthrow of the long-time ruler.
Witnesses said hundreds of demonstrators had gathered again at the court building after a day of bloodshed, during which Libyan forces opened fire on mourners leaving a funeral for protesters.
In the hours after that attack, a medical official said at least 15 people were killed, although one doctor in Benghazi said there were at least 200 dead in his hospital since unrest began.
Witness accounts said a mixture of special commandos, foreign mercenaries and Gadhafi loyalists armed with knives, Kalashnikovs and even anti-aircraft missiles went after the demonstrators.
Getting concrete details about the six days of protests in Libya is difficult because journalists cannot work freely inside the country, which Gadhafi has tightly controlled for 42 years. Information about the uprising has come through telephone interviews, along with videos and messages posted online, and through opposition activists in exile.
According to several accounts, police in Benghazi initially followed orders Saturday to act against the protesters, but later joined with them because they belong to the same tribe and saw foreign mercenaries taking part in the killings.
Before Saturday’s violence, Human Rights Watch estimated at least 84 people had been killed in anti-Gadhafi unrest.
The protests, inspired by the successful uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, have been driven by frustration and anger over Gadhafi’s authoritarian rule, corruption, economic hardships.
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