TRIPOLI — Protests against the 40-plus-year reign of dictator Moammar Gadhafi have broken out inTripoli, the capital, for the first time, according to news reports, as protesters in other cities count the dead from clashes with troops over days of protest.
A doctor told Al Jazeera that forces had fired on protesters in Tripoli, killing four, and Al Jazeera reported a resident saying she could hear gunfire in the city from her upscale suburb. Other sources told Al Jazeera that clashes between pro- and anti-Gadhafi sources in central Tripoli involved thousands of people.
Gadhafi’s son, Seif el islam Gadhafi, will make a televised address Sunday night, Libya TV said, according to Al jazeera.
Gadhafi’s son, Seif el islam Gadhafi, will make a televised address Sunday night, Libya TV said, according to Al jazeera.
A doctor in the eastern city of Benghazi told Reuters that at least 50 people were killed and 100 others seriously wounded in Benghazi Sunday afternoon and evening. There were unconfirmed claims that the opposition had taken control of the city, with Gadhafi’s forces holed up in a walled compound.
“Today has been a real tragedy. … Since 3 p.m. (1300 GMT) and up to 9:15 p.m., we received 50 dead, mostly from bullet wounds,” Habib al-Obaidi, who heads the intensive care unit at the main Al-Jalae hospital, said by telephone. “There are 200 wounded; 100 of them are in very seriousconditions.”
A doctor earlier said 200 dead had arrived at the hospital in the unrest through Saturday.
Libyan forces fired machine guns at mourners marching in a funeral for anti-government protesters in Benghazi, a day after commandos and foreign mercenaries loyal to longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi pummeled demonstrators with assault rifles and other heavy weaponry.
Libyan forces fired machine guns at mourners marching in a funeral for anti-government protesters in Benghazi, a day after commandos and foreign mercenaries loyal to longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi pummeled demonstrators with assault rifles and other heavy weaponry.
The crackdown in oil-rich Libya is shaping up to be the most brutal repression of 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 East African nation of Djibouti and even China.
Libya’s rebellion by those frustrated with Gadhafi’s more than 40 years of authoritarian rule has spread to more than a half-dozen cities. Benghazi has been at the center of unrest.
But getting reliable information about the chaotic situation is difficult. Journalists cannot work freely. Information about the uprising has come through telephone interviews, along with videos and messages posted online, and through opposition activists in exile.
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