LIBYA: More feared dead as protests spread

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Messages and videos posted on social media sites Thursday signaled that anti-government protests in Libya were gathering steam in several cities, with some turning violent on a ‘Day of Rage.’

‘Ladies and men out as well as youth, live fire and tear gas being used, URGENT help is needed,’ one Twitter witness in Al Bayda posted.

New videos have been posted here and here purportedly showing protesters in the streets of Benghazi on Thursday, although that could not be verified. More updated videos are expected soon, according to protesters and supporters on the #Feb17 Twitter list.

A series of chilling posts was relayed via Twitter from a protester identified as Abdallah who was phoning in reports from Benghazi this morning:

Abdallah (caller from Benghazi): They are killing us, they just killed 6, they have swords and knifes.

Abdallah: They are killing everybody, I am running now, they have released people from the prisons.

Abdallah: Yes, there are pro Gaddafi protests: but they are not Libyan, they are Africans they are killing everybody.

Protesters tweeted that many wounded demonstrators had been taken to AlJala hospital in Benghazi.

CNN has received reports of at least 10 deaths associated with the Libyan protests, but said those reports could not be independently confirmed.

A text message sent out on mobile phones challenged younger Libyans to take to the streets, activists and bloggers said.

‘From Libya’s youth to anyone who dares to cross any of the four red lines come and face us in any street on the ground of our beloved country,’ the text message said, referring to a speech by Saif el-Islam Kadafi, son of longtime Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, in which he described the ‘four lines’ as Islamic law, the Quran, Libyan security and his father.

Kadafi’s government retains control over most of the media in Libya and monitors and censors the few private media outlets.

Libyan websites had posted calls for a ‘Day of Rage’ on Wednesday, the anniversary of a 2006 demonstration in which at least a dozen protesters were killed in clashes with security forces.

Libya’s state-run television, however, only showed demonstrations in support of Kadafi, who has ruled the country for more than four decades. A source in Tripoli close to senior government officials told CNN that several events Thursday showed support for Kadafi, including a gathering of several hundred people in the capital and drivers waving Libyan flags from their cars.

Ahmed Elgasir, a researcher at the Geneva, Switzerland-based Libyan Human Rights Solidarity, told CNN that serious clashes between protesters and security forces occurred Thursday in Benghazi. Elgasir said 10 people were killed in Baida on Thursday and that the city was surrounded by security forces. An anti-Kadafi Libyan exile group in the United States said it had confirmed three deaths in Al Bayda after speaking to sources on the ground. Abdulla Darrat, spokesman for Enough Gaddafi, told CNN that hospitals in Al Bayda were inundated and that doctors were running out of medical supplies to treat the injured.

Elgasir also said demonstrations were taking place in Zentan, south of Tripoli.

On Wednesday, at least 38 people were injured after police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse crowds in Benghazi, the online newspaper Quryna reported. Human Rights Watch has reported one death in Benghazi--based on sources inside the country who were not identified because of security concerns.

-- Molly Hennessy-Fiske