*
Benghazi men says security forces withdraw from streets
* Witnesses say snipers using high-velocity rounds
* "Stop the massacre now!" say Muslim leaders
(Updates with fresh witness accounts)
TRIPOLI, Feb 20 (
Reuters) - At least 20 protesters were
killed overnight in the Libyan city of
Benghazi, a rights
watchdog said on Sunday, after witnesses said security forces
fired heavy weapons at civilians from a fortified compound.
The
New York-based
Human Rights Watch said the latest night
of violence took the death toll from four days of clashes
centred on
Benghazi and surrounding towns beyond 100. The unrest, the worst in Libyan
leader Muammar Gaddafi's
four decades in power, started as a series of protests inspired
by popular revolts in neighbouring
Egypt and
Tunisia, but was
met by a fierce response. A picture pieced together from witness accounts suggested
that the city is in a cycle of violence, where people are killed
and then, after funeral processions to bury the dead the next
day, security forces shoot more protesters.
Conflicting accounts were given over poor phone lines but it
appeared the streets were under the control of protesters while
security forces had pulled back to a high-walled compound, known
as the
Command Centre, from where they shot at people. "A massacre took place here last night," one
Benghazi
resident, who did not want to be named, told
Reuters by
telephone on Sunday. He said security forces were using heavy weapons, adding:
"Many soldiers and policemen have joined the protesters."
A
Benghazi hospital doctor said victims had suffered severe
wounds from high-velocity rifles.
"CIVIL MUTINY"
Another witness, a leading tribal figure who requested
anonymity, suggested the security forces remained confined to
their control centre. "The state's official presence is absent in the city and the
security forces are in their barracks and the city is in a state
of civil mutiny," he told
Reuters. "People are running their own
affairs." He said that, as on previous days, thousands of people were
gathered near the northern
Benghazi courthouse. He said they
were chanting: "We want to bring down the regime ... Allahu
Akbar!"
Human Rights Watch said at least 20 more people had been
killed in
Benghazi on Saturday, taking the overall toll,
compiled from interviews with witnesses and hospital officials,
to a "conservative" 104. The
Libyan government has not released any casualty figures
or made any official comment on the violence. Libyan analysts say it is unlikely for the moment that
Gaddafi will be overthrown because the unrest is largely
confined to the eastern Cyrenaica region where his support has
traditionally been weaker than in the capital
Tripoli, 1,000 km
(600 miles) to the west, and the rest of the country.
The crackdown prompted about 50 Libyan Muslim religious
leaders to issue an appeal, sent to
Reuters, for the security
forces, as Muslims, to stop the killing. "We appeal to every Muslim, within the regime or assisting
it in any way, to recognise that the killing of innocent human
beings is forbidden by our Creator and by His beloved Prophet of
Compassion (peace be upon him) ... Do NOT kill your brothers and
sisters. STOP the massacre NOW!" the appeal said. Foreign reaction to the unrest in
Libya, a major energy
producer with significant foreign investment, has so far been
muted, but Britain called for a stronger response.
"The world should not hesitate to condemn those actions,"
Hague told
Sky News. "What
Colonel Gaddafi should be doing is
respecting basic human rights, and there is no sign of that in
the dreadful response, the horrifying response, of the Libyan
authorities to these protests."
TEXT APPEAL
Some analysts have said there may be negotiations between
Gaddafi and eastern tribal leaders, and an
SMS message sent late
on Saturday to Libyan mobile phone subscribers hinted at a more
conciliatory approach.
"All citizens and youth of
Benghazi, those who died among
the civilians and police are all sons of our country. Enough of
what has happened and stop the bloodshed." In
Tripoli, several thousand Gaddafi supporters rallied in
the city's
Green Square until the early hours of Sunday morning,
a
Reuters reporter said.
They chanted "God,
Libya and Muammar!" and "Muammar is the
pioneer of Arab nationalism!".
Libya's state news agency said some cities had seen acts of
arson and vandalism, and blamed "a
foreign network trained in
creating clashes and chaos so as to destabilise
Libya".
Sir
Richard Dalton, a former British
ambassador to
Libya,
told the Independent on Sunday newspaper that Gaddafi would find
it hard to make concessions in order to survive. "I think the attitude of the Libyan regime is that it's all
or nothing," he said. Witness accounts have been hard to verify independently
because Libyan authorities have not allowed foreign journalists
into the country since the protests erupted and local reporters
have been barred from travelling to
Benghazi.
Mobile phone connections have often been out of service and
Internet service in
Libya has been cut off, according to a U.S.
company that monitors
web traffic. People in
Tripoli said they
had
Internet access late on Saturday.
(Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in
Amman, Tom
Heneghan in
Paris,
Hamid Ould Ahmed in
Algiers; Writing by
Christian Lowe; Editing by
Kevin Liffey)
