Witnesses report that dozens of anti-government protesters shot by security forces
Unrest sweeps across Muslim nations
The body of a protester, who was killed by riot-police, is carried by family members in Sitra, Bahrain. Photo: Reuters
TRIPOLI — The death toll from four days of violence centered on the Libyan city of Benghazi has passed 100, Human Rights Watch said Sunday, after witnesses said security forces shot dozens more anti-government protesters.
Libyan protesters are returning to a court building in the flashpoint eastern city of Benghazi, demanding the overthrow of longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi.
Witnesses told The Associated Press hundreds of protesters gathered Sunday morning at the city's court building after a day of bloodshed.
The unrest, the worst Gadhafi's four decades in power, started out as a series of protests inspired by popular revolts in neighboring Egypt and Tunisia but was met by a fierce security crackdown.
Story: Flamboyant Gadhafi feels wind of changeWitnesses in the eastern city of Benghazi said security forces on Saturday had pulled back to a fortified compound in the center of the town from where they were shooting at people returning from burying protesters killed on previous days.
"Dozens were killed ... We are in the midst of a massacre here," a witness told Reuters. The man said he had helped take victims to hospital in Benghazi.
Death toll raised New York-based Human Rights Watch said it had raised its death toll from the previous 84 to 104, after at least 20 more people were killed in Benghazi Saturday.
It said that death toll, compiled from interviews with witnesses and hospital officials, was "conservative." The Libyan government has not released any casualty figures or made any official comment on the violence.
A Benghazi hospital doctor said victims had suffered severe wounds from high-velocity rifles. .... see more
19 FebSecurity forces, pro- and anti-regime protesters battle for the upper hand in the Muslim nations of Bahrain, Yemen and Libya.
