The gangster Moammer Gadhafi's regime keeps on killing it's own young people.
In 'midst of a massacre': Libya death toll climbs
Witnesses report that dozens of anti-government protesters shot by security force
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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.
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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.
Video: Snipers reportedly fire on mourners in Libya (on this page)The bloody crackdown prompted about 50 Libyan Muslim religious leaders to issue an appeal, sent to Reuters, for the security forces, as Muslims, to stop the killing.
"This is an urgent appeal from religious scholars (faqihs and Sufi sheikhs), intellectuals, and clan elders from Tripoli, Bani Walid, Zintan, Jadu, Msalata, Misrata, Zawiah, and other towns and villages of the western area," said the appeal.
"We appeal to every Muslim, within the regime or assisting it in any way, to recognize that the killing of innocent human beings is forbidden by our Creator and by His beloved Prophet of Compassion (peace be upon him)... Do NOT kill your brothers and sisters. STOP the massacre NOW!"
Benghazi and the surrounding area have been the focus of the unrest, but posts on social network sites, which could not be verified, referred to minor clashes in the capital Tripoli and of overnight gunfire in Nalut, to the west.
Libya watchers say an Egypt-style nationwide revolt is unlikely because Gadhafi has oil cash to smooth over social problems, and is still respected in much of the country.
Scene of past violence Gaddafi has traditionally had less support in the eastern region around Benghazi than in the rest of the oil-producing country, and the city has been the scene of violence in the past.
"Gaddafi will find it hard to make concessions in order to survive. I think the attitude of the Libyan regime is that it's all or nothing," Sir Richard Dalton, a former British ambassador to Libya, told the Independent Sunday newspaper.
- In 'midst of a massacre': Libya death toll climbsThe death toll from four days of violence centered on the Libyan city of Benghazi has passed 100, Human Rights Watch said Sunday. Full story
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Witness accounts have been hard to verify independently because Libyan authorities have not allowed foreign journalists into the country since the protests erupted and local reporters have been barred from traveling to Benghazi.
Mobile phone connections have often been out of service and Internet service in Libya has been cut off, according to a U.S. company that monitors web traffic. People in Tripoli said they had Internet access late Saturday.
The U.S.-based Arbor Networks reported an Internet service outage in Libya just before midnight Saturday night. The company says online traffic ceased in Libya about 2 a.m. Saturday, was restored at reduced levels several hours later, only to be cut off again.
Benghazi 'liberated'
A Benghazi resident said security forces were confined to a compound from which snipers were firing at protesters.
"Right now, the only military presence in Benghazi is confined to the Command Center Complex in the city. The rest of the city is liberated," he said late Saturday.
"Thousands and thousands of people have gathered in front of Benghazi's court house ... All the revolutionary committee (local government) offices and police stations in the city have been burned," he said.
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