Libya: Hail of gunfire on protesters
Benghazi, Libya: Militias loyal to Moammar Gadhafi opened fire Friday on protesters streaming out of mosques and marching across the Libyan capital to demand the regime's ouster, witnesses said, reporting multiple deaths.
Sources said six people were killed after they took to the streets undeterred by a fierce clampdown, as the uprising against Gaddafi regime inched closer to the Libyan capital Tripoli.
In rebellious cities in the east, tens of thousands held rallies in support of the first Tripoli protests in days. The protest was backed up by tens of thousands of protesters across Libya seeking an end to his 41-year iron-fisted rule.
In Benghazi, where protests first erupted before protesters managed to oust the regime, thousands gathered for the Friday prayers and paid homage to those killed in the violence.
Around Tripoli, an elite brigade commanded by Gaddafi's son Khamis is believed to be dug in amid a heavy security presence around the city's mosques in recent days.
Security forces loyal to Gaddafi attacked anti-regime protesters with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades at a mosque in Zawiyah on Thursday leaving nearly 100 people dead. But, undeterred by the brutal military action, protesters, who have gained control of several eastern cities, advanced closer to 68-year-old Gaddafi's stronghold of Tripoli.
"The security forces fired indiscriminately on the demonstrators... There were deaths in the streets of Sug al-Jomaa," a resident of one of the capital's eastern suburbs was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera, giving an account of Friday's protests.
Protesters described coming under a hail of bullets as they tried to march from several districts around the city toward Tripoli's central Green Square. One man among a crowd of thousands said gunmen on rooftops and in the streets opened fire with automatic weapons and even an anti-aircraft gun.
"In the first wave of fire, seven people within 10 meters (yards) of me were killed. Many people were shot in the head," the man, who was marching from Tripoli's eastern Tajoura district, told the media. "It was really like we are dogs."
"We can't see where it is coming from," another protester from Tajoura said of the gunfire. "They don't want to stop." He said a man next to him was shot in the neck.
Militiamen opened fire on other marches in the nearby Souq al-Jomaa and Fashloum districts, where witnesses reported four killed. The reports could not be immediately confirmed.
There is no clear picture of how many people have died in the violence of the past few days but France's top human rights official Francois Zimeray said yesterday that it could be as high as 2,000.
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