Dozens of Libyans killed in crackdown

CAIRO - Libyan security forces waged an escalating crackdown onprotesters demanding the ouster of leader Moammar Gadhafi in severaleastern cities. In the country's second largest city, a stream of 35bodies was brought to one hospital Friday, reportedly of protestersshot while trying to march on one of Gadhafi's residences, a doctorsaid.

The deaths took place in the city of Benghazi after funerals formore than a dozen protesters shot to death a day earlier. The doctorin Benghazi's al-Jalaa hospital said survivors of Friday's clashessaid that after the burials, protesters tried to rally outside theKatiba, a military compound where Ghadafi stays when he visits.

Security forces inside the compound opened fire on protesters asthey approached, the doctor said. Dead and wounded began flowinginto the hospital's emergency ward in the afternoon, in groups offive or six, many with bullet wounds to the head or chest. He saidhe counted 35 bodies in an ICU unit used as a temporary morgue.

Several dozen have reportedly been killed already in theunprecedented wave of protests that have erupted the past four daysas the pro-democracy movement that has swept up the Middle Eastreached one of the region's most closed nations. Gadhafi has ruledvirtually unquestioned since 1969.

Libya is oil-rich, but the gap between its haves and have-nots iswide, and the protests have flared hardest in the more impoverishedeastern parts of the country, the site of anti-government agitationin the past. The Central Intelligence Agency estimates about one-third of Libyans live in poverty, and U.S. diplomats have said innewly leaked memos that Gadhafi's regime seems to neglect the eastintentionally, letting unemployment and poverty rise to weakenopponents there.

"This alarming rise in the death toll, and the reported nature ofthe victims' injuries, strongly suggests that security forces arepermitted use of lethal force against unarmed protesters calling forpolitical change," Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's directorfor the Middle East and North Africa, said of the Benghazibloodshed.

Information is tightly controlled in Libya, where journalistscannot work freely and many citizens fear the powerful security andintelligence services. The Internet was reportedly down in manyparts of eastern Libya, including Benghazi.

Witnesses and residents of several cities gave accounts of eventsFriday, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.In many cases, separate people gave similar reports, but theiraccounts could not be independently confirmed.

At least five cities of eastern Libya have seen protests andclashes in recent days. In one of them, Beyida, a hospital officialsaid Friday that the bodies of at least 23 protesters slain over thepast 48 hours were at his facility, which was treating about 500wounded - some in the parking lot for lack of beds. Another witnessreported 26 protesters buried in Beyida on Thursday and earlyFriday.

"We need doctors, medicine and everything," the hospital officialsaid.

Forces from the military's elite Khamis Brigade moved intoBenghazi, Beyida and several other cities, residents said. They wereaccompanied by militias that seemed to include foreign mercenaries,residents said. Several witnesses reported French-speaking fighters,believed to be Tunisians or sub-Saharan Africans, among militiamenwearing blue uniforms and yellow helmets.