Six die in Libya ‘Day of Anger’

Six people were killed in the Libyan city of Benghazi yesterday, as Muammar Gaddafi’s regime sought to overshadow an opposition “Day of Anger” with its own rally in the capital Tripoli.

Meanwhile, clashes broke out in the city of Zentan, southwest of the capital, in which a number of government buildings were said to have been torched.

Violent clashes in the Mediterranean coastal city of Benghazi have so far left six dead yesterday, the Al-Youm and Al-Manara sites reported on what was the third straight day of protests against the long-time Libyan leader.

Gunfire rang out in several parts of the city, Ramadan Briki, chief editor of the Quryna newspaper in Benghazi, said.

“It is the first time that we have heard shooting in the city,” Mr Briki said. “Given the difficulties, we are unable to know if there are fatalities or not.”

Separately, lawyers demonstrated in front of a courthouse in Benghazi – Libya’s second city after Tripoli – to demand a constitution for the country.

The websites, monitored in Nicosia, said at least four people were killed in the city of Al-Baida, 200 kilometres east of Benghazi, on Wednesday.

Sites monitored in Cyprus and a Libyan human rights group based abroad reported earlier that the anti-Gaddafi protests in Al-Baida had cost as many as 13 lives.

“Internal security forces and militias of the Revolutionary Committees used live ammunition to disperse a peaceful demonstration by the youth of Al-Baida,” leaving “at least four dead and several injured,” according to Libya Watch.

Geneva-based Human Rights Solidarity, citing witnesses, said rooftop snipers in Al-Baida – a city of 210,000 inhabitants – had killed 13 protesters and wounded dozens of others.

But the Quryna newspaper, close to Colonel Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam, cited official sources and put the death toll at two. It traced the unrest to a police shutdown of local shops that soon escalated.

The interior ministry fired the head of security in Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar province in the aftermath of the violence, in which protesters had torched “several police cars and citizens,” the paper said on its website.

Videos circulating on the internet showed dozens of young Libyans apparently gathered on Wednesday night in Al-Baida chanting, “The people want to bring down the regime,” and a building which had been set on fire.

Rights group Amnesty International denounced the use of excessive force.

“The police in Libya, as elsewhere, have a responsibility to ensure public safety but this does not extend to using lethal or excessive force against peaceful protesters,” Malcolm Smart, director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.

In Tripoli, the situation was calm yesterday. A pro-regime rally was organised in Green Square, near the capital’s water front, with students being bused in to take part.

Traffic was lighter than usual and the security presence on main roads slightly boosted, after text messages went out on Libya’s mobile telephone network on Wednesday warning against street protests.