Libyan security forces opened fired on mourners at a funeral for anti-government protesters in the eastern city of Benghazi again on Sunday, a day after commandos and foreign mercenaries loyal to longtime leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi pummelled demonstrators with assault rifles and other heavy weaponry as well as knives.
Libyan protesters defied a fierce crackdown by the Gaddafi regime, returning to a square outside a court building in the flashpoint city of Benghazi to demand the overthrow of the dictator. Witnesses said hundreds of demonstrators gathered early Sunday morning 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. But Mohammed Abdullah, a Dubai-based member of the Libyan Salvation Front, said the toll could be much higher. He quoted Benghazi hospital officials saying the death toll might have reached 300. The crackdown in Libya is shaping up to be the most brutal repression of the anti-government protests that began with uprisings that toppled the regimes in Tunisia and Egypt. The protests then spread quickly around the region to Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Algeria, Morocco and outside the region to places including the East African nation of Djibouti and even China.