Libyan death toll reaches 173

[News_Editor]

Libyan death toll reaches 173

2011-02-20 22:53:17 GMT+7 (ICT)

TRIPOLI (BNO NEWS) – At least 173 people have been killed in Libya since demonstrations began on Wednesday, according to Human Rights Watch, the BBC reported on Sunday.

The death toll increased after troops attacked on Saturday a funeral procession for victims of previous clashes. According to eyewitnesses, troops used machine-guns, mortars, large-calibre weapons, and even a missile, against the mourners. Security forces suggested that they responded after protesters threw firebombs at the compound.

"The latest reports speak of Libyans in Benghazi being shot down with machine guns and other weapons by tough new troops, including possibly foreign mercenaries, who have been ferried in to suppress the protests," Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a press release.

Libyan authorities have imposed severe media restrictions, which makes it difficult to verify the reports. A doctor from Benghazi, where the majority of the protests have taken place, said that the Jala hospital mortuary had 208 bodies from Saturday's violence, and another hospital had 12. It is not clear, however, if all of these bodies are from Saturday's violence.

"Ninety per cent of these gunshot wounds [were] mainly in the head, the neck, the chest, mainly in the heart," the doctor added, as cited by the BBC.

Doctors are struggling to cope and running out of blood supplies and medicines to treat the wounded, according to Amnesty International.

Human Rights Watch reported on Saturday a death toll of 84, after 20 people were killed in Benghazi, 23 in Baida, three in Ajdabiya, and three in Derna during peaceful protests on Thursday. Then, on Friday, security forces killed 35 people after protests in the second city Benghazi began during funerals for the 20 demonstrators.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague on Saturday called on the authorities to stop using force against demonstrators after receiving the report that 35 bodies were brought to one hospital alone.

"I condemn the violence in Libya, including reports of the use of heavy weapons fire and a unit of snipers against demonstrators. This is clearly unacceptable and horrifying," the secretary said in a statement.

The European Union have also condemned the use of excessive force and urged Libyan authorities to allow anti-government protesters to demonstrate and take their demands seriously. Rights groups have also reiterated their condemnation of the violence used against peaceful protesters.

"Forces loyal to Colonel al-Gaddafi are using unwarranted lethal force against protestors calling for change and the result is a wholly predictable one," Smart said.

"It looks like Libya's leader may have ordered his forces to put down the protests virtually at any cost, and that cost is being paid in the lives of Libyans," Smart added.

Protesters, inspired by the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, began protesting in the past few days to demand the resignation of Muammar Gaddafi, who has ruled oil-rich Libya since 1969.

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