Libyan regime hits back with deadly crackdown

CAIRO :Security forces have killed more than 80 anti-regime protesters in eastern Libya, Human Rights Watch said on Saturday, after Tripoli pledged to crush opposition in what Britain called a "horrifying" crackdown.

On the fifth day of an unprecedented challenge to his four-decade regime, Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi had still made no public comment although he reportedly appeared at a mass rally of supporters in the capital on Thursday.

After regime opponents used Facebook to mobilise protests, as in neighbouring Egypt, the social networking website was blocked on Saturday and Internet connections were patchy, said Internet users in Tripoli and Benghazi.

Arbor Networks, a US-based tracker of online traffic, said Internet services were cut overnight.

But the capital itself remained calm on Saturday, a correspondent in Tripoli said, as state television and the official news agency JANA restricted their coverage to reports of pro-regime rallies.

"Security forces are firing on Libyan citizens and killing scores simply because they're demanding change and accountability," said New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), citing phone interviews with hospital staff and witnesses.

It said thousands of demonstrators had poured out onto the streets in Benghazi and other eastern cities on Friday, a day after clashes in which 49 people were killed.

"Hospital sources told Human Rights Watch that security forces killed 35 people in Benghazi on February 18, almost all with live ammunition," raising the tally to more than 80.

At least 24 were gunned down in Benghazi, Libya's second city and hotbed of anti-Kadhafi opposition, and in Al-Baida on a "day of anger" on Thursday, according to HRW.

According to a medical source at Benghazi's Al-Jalaa Hospital and the website of Quryna newspaper, which is close to Kadhafi's reputedly pro-reform son Seif al-Islam, Fri! day's de ath toll in the city was 24.

Libya's attorney general, Abdelrahman al-Abbar, has ordered an inquiry into the violence focused on the east of the country, an official in Tripoli told AFP on Saturday, on condition of anonymity.

The prosecutor has called for "procedures to be expedited to judge all those who were guilty of death or looting," the source said.

In Benghazi, demonstrators on Friday set fire to a local radio station after the building's guards withdrew, witnesses and a security source told AFP.

And Quryna reported on Friday that some 1,000 inmates had escaped from a Benghazi prison, while a security source told AFP four inmates were shot dead during a breakout bid in Tripoli.

According to a toll compiled by AFP from local sources, at least 65 people have been killed since demonstrations first erupted on Tuesday. That toll excludes two policemen newspapers said were hanged in Al-Baida on Friday.

Oea, another newspaper close to Seif al-Islam, said the two policemen had been lynched by demonstrators.

Security forces circled Al-Baida on Friday, a source close to the authorities told AFP, following Internet reports that protesters had seized control of the city.

Another well-informed local source told AFP that 14 civilians, including protesters and members of the Revolutionary Committees, the backbone of Kadhafi's regime, had been killed in Al-Baida.

"The response of the people and the Revolutionary Forces to any adventures by these small groups will be sharp and violent," the Revolutionary Committees had warned on the website of its newspaper, Azzahf Al-Akhdar (Green March).

On Friday, US President Barack Obama condemned the use of violence against peaceful protesters in Libya, Bahrain and Yemen, while Britain, France and the European Union urged Libyan authorities to exercise restraint.

On Saturday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague denounced the crackdown, urging authorities there to rein in the army.

"I condemn the vi! olence i n Libya, including reports of the use of heavy weapons fire and a unit of snipers against demonstrators. This is clearly unacceptable and horrifying," he said.

Britain also warned its citizens against all but essential travel to eastern Libya, and France said it had suspended authorisation of exports of security equipment to the country.

Kadhafi, 68, is the longest-serving leader in the Arab world. His oil-producing North African state is sandwiched between Tunisia and Egypt, whose long-time leaders have been toppled by popular uprisings.