Dubai: Anti-government protesters seized control of the eastern Libyan city of Al Bayda after they were joined by some policemen, two separate Libyan exile groups said yesterday.
"Al Bayda is in the hands of the people," Giumma Al Omami of the Libyan Human Rights Solidarity group told Reuters.
The reports, which the two groups said were based on their own telephone contacts with the city of some 250,000 people, could not be independently verified.
It was learnt that one of Gaddafi's sons, Sa'adi, was in the city to help control protests but later fled the main government building along with his supporters before protesters gained control of government establishments.
The residents of the city of Benghazi, meanwhile, told Gulf News that Libya is on the verge of becoming free from dictatorship.
Thousands of people took to the streets overnight to protest against security forces who killed more than 20 protesters. New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch said that, according to its sources inside the country, Libyan security forces had killed at least 24 people in crackdowns on Wednesday and Thursday.
Benghazi witnessed fierce clashes on Thursday night, a resident told Reuters. "The confrontation between protesters and Gaddafi supporters is still going on, and some of the police personnel have become angry. There are a lot of people killed."
"Bodies of martyrs are still littering the main Nasser Street after security forces killed as many as 20 and injured 235 during the Thursday evening protests in the city," Fattah Al Idrisi, a resident in the city centre told Gulf News over the phone.
"In spite of the brutal crackdown on protesters on Thursday night, protesters took to the streets once again after the Friday prayers. Protesters who left Al Fateh Mosque chanted slogans for change of the regime," he said. "More than 100,000 are gathering in the city's main square, Al Saha Al Khadra — the Green Square."
The imam of Al Fateh Mosque in Benghazi said that Al Jazeera and other TV channels have a duty before God to cover the revolution in Libya.
Gulf News later lost contact with the resident after the government disconnected telephone lines and internet services in a bid to isolate the protesters.
"The police disappeared from the city along with the supporters of Gaddafi and troops were called in and cordoned off the city. The army is controlling the entry and the exit from the second largest city in Libya," Al Idrisi said. Another Benghazi resident who preferred not to be identified, told Gulf News that Friday was being observed as the Day of Unity. "We are all united — east, west and south under one goal: to remove the brutal regime," he said.
He said the organisers of the uprising had called for peaceful protests but Gaddafi and his supporters turned it ugly by using live ammunition.
Citizens of Benghazi and Al Bayda had succeeded in cleansing their cities from what the opposition tagged as the army of mercenaries responsible for the killings on Thursday, he added.
One citizen said there were North Korean and Bangladeshis among scores of pro-government forces mobilised to suppress the protesters last night.
Gulf News has learnt that protesters broke into the central jail of Kuwafiya in Benghazi and liberated a number of political prisoners.
