Libya and Bahrain protests – Saturday 19 February
• Dozens reported killed in deadly crackdowns
• Video shows Libya protester shot in head
• Iran opposition calls for more demonstrations
• Follow the latest developments as they happenProtesters run from a cloud of teargas during a clash with Bahraini security forces near the Pearl roundabout in Manama. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images
9.52am: Good morning, this is David Batty with today's liveblog on the continuing unrest in the Arab world and Middle East. The death toll is spiralling as security forces in Libya and Bahrain crack down on popular protests.
Here are the main developments overnight and this morning:
• Libyan security forces killed 35 people in the eastern city of Benghazi last night, according to Human Rights Watch. This brings the death toll from three days of protests in the east of Libya to 84, according to the New York-based group. Eyewitness accounts given to news agencies suggest the total could be significantly higher.
• Libya's main internet service provider, General Post and Telecommunications Company, has largely cut off access to the internet. Al-Jazeera says its Arabic news channel is being jammed on several frequencies.
• Bahrain's main Shia opposition group has rejected King Hamad's offer of national dialogue to end the violent unrest in the Sunni-ruled Gulf state. At least 50 people were wounded on Friday in the capital, Manama, following the funerals for four protesters killed on Thursday.
Libyan special forces have stormed a protest camp in the eastern city of Benghazi, the Associated Press reports. At 5am special forces are said to have attacked hundreds of protesters, including lawyers and judges, who have been camped out for the past two days in front of the courthouse in city, which has been a focus for the anti-government unrest.
One protester who spoke to the news agency said he feared the security forces were stepping up their brutal crackdown:
They fired teargas on protesters in tents and cleared the areas after many fled carrying the dead and the injured. This is a ghost city; we are all afraid that something big is going to happen in Benghazi today.
10.17am, Libya: More on Human Rights Watch's estimate of the rising death toll in Libya. The group says at least 84 people were killed in several cities in the east of the country between 16-18 February. It bases the estimate on telephone interviews with hospital staff and witnesses.
Hospital sources have said security forces killed 35 people in Benghazi on Friday, almost all with live ammunition:
By 11pm on 18 February, al-Jalaa hospital in Benghazi had received the bodies of 35 people killed that day, a senior hospital official told Human Rights Watch. He said the deaths had been caused by gunshot wounds to the chest, neck, and head.
On Thursday 20 people were killed in Benghazi, 23 in Baida, three in Ajdabiya and three in Derna, according to reports.
Al-Jazeera English has posted a video on YouTube of a protest outside what appears to be a court building or a police station.
According to the news channel, the protesters are yelling "Oh, Benghazi, where are you! Come see the oppressed people" and "Shame on you, you lied to us."
10.39am, Libya: Moftah, a Libyan protester, has given an interview to CNN's Anderson Cooper describing how soldiers fired on thousands of demonstrators in Benghazi.
In this video, Moftah tells Cooper: "I don't know the numbers [of protesters] but we had [a demonstration] in the streets about 3km long and 30m wide. [The streets] were fully packed by demonstrators carrying the coffins of people who are dead and then we reach a place where the Revolutionary Guard and that's when they start shooting heavily at us with live ammunition. Later on I found out that four people died and that many other people were wounded, critically wounded."
10.50am: Access to the internet in Libya was cut off at 1.18am Libyan time (23.18 GMT Friday) but appears to have been partially restored by 8.01am, according to the internet monitoring service Renesys.
At the moment, spot checks of Libyan domains and traceroutes into affected networks indicate that connectivity has been restored and Libya is back on the internet.
Libya appears to be following the cue of the Egyptian authorities who cut off internet access during the protests that ousted Hosni Mubarak from the presidency.
11.08am, Libya: For Libyan anti-government activists, 17 February is a significant date. Five years ago on that date security forces killed at least a dozen protesters during a peaceful demonstration in Tripoli.
So it is not surprising that some of the most useful sources of information about the current protests in the country have taken that date as their name. For example, the feb17voices channel on audioboo has audio reports from eyewitnesses of the crackdown on anti-government demonstrators.
Most of the posts are in Arabic but a few are in English. In this interview a woman claims that Korean and African mercenaries have been flown in to combat the protesters in Benghazi. A spokesman for the South Korean embassy has contacted us to state that there are no South Korean mercenaries present in Libya or in Africa.
Meanwhile this man describes how the army has confronted protesters in Benghazi.
Here's an excerpt:
The army came out, OK, it was with tanks and they're telling us, seven people, protesters, that they're with them, and they're here to protect them and everything else. But we hear other things; in some other places of the city the army's shooting people, and also I heard that they're taking over the airport and there's some aeroplanes arriving with more army corps from outside, from the other cities.11.15am, Bahrain: Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa has ordered the withdrawal of troops from the streets, AP reports.
Bahrain's police will "continue to oversee law and order", the government has added in a statement.
Police earlier attacked anti-government protesters in the capital, Manama, as they tried to reclaim Pearl Square after troops pulled out. Officers beat the demonstrators and fired teargas or smoke bombs into the crowd as tanks and armoured vehicles withdrew.
11.23am, Yemen: Riot police have opened fire on thousands of protesters marching through the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, according to AP, which says the shots kiled one and injured five.
Protesters began marching early in the morning from the University of Sana'a to the ministry of justice while chanting: "The people want the fall of the regime," until they were met by riot police.
Security forces backed by plainclothes elements opened fire on them and threw stones.
A medical official said one man was shot in the neck and killed.Reuters is reporting that two people were seriously wounded.
Security forces have disappeared from the streets of Aden, where rioting has led to at least four deaths and threatened to plunge the city into chaos. AP is quoting residents as saying gangs are looting and burning government buildings, with no sign of police or armed forces.
11.43am, Libya: This YouTube channel has a collection of videos of protests from across the east of Libya. Please be warned, these videos are graphic.
Towards the end, this clip shows a man shot in the head and bleeding heavily - which recalls the footage of Neda Agha Soltan, killed on camera by a sniper's bullet during the protests against the Iranian regime last summer.
11.46am, Algeria and Bahrain: Algerian police in riot gear have surrounded about 500 protesters trying to stage a march through the capital, Algiers, Reuters reports.
A group chanting "Algeria - free and democratic" tried to reach the 1 May Square in the city centre to begin the protest march but was pushed back by police using batons who surrounded them in a courtyard of a residential block.
"If the authorities are democratic, why are they not allowing us to march?" a 52-year-old woman told the news agency.
In Bahrain the main trade union has called for a national strike from Monday, Reuters reports.
"The Gulf Air trade union has told its members that the General Union of Bahraini Workers has called for a strike from 20 February," a Gulf Air employee told the news agency.
11.50am: The British foreign secretary, William Hague, has condemned the use of "unacceptable and horrifying" violence by the Libyan authorities and called on governments across the Arab world to respond to the "legitimate aspirations" of their people.
"The British government is deeply concerned by continuing reports overnight of unacceptable violence used against protesters in Libya, Bahrain and Yemen, and the deaths of protesters.
"Governments must respond to legitimate aspirations of their people, rather than resort to the use of force, and must respect the right to peaceful protest.
"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. I call on the authorities to stop using force and to rein back the army in confronting the demonstrators."
The Foreign Office has already warned Britons against all but essential travel to the eastern cities of Benghazi, Ajdabiya, al-Bayda, al-Marj, Derna and Tobruk, which have been rocked by violent unrest in recent days.
12.40pm, Egypt: Egyptian businessmen have welcomed an order from the military for workers to stop strike action. Businessmen told AP that they thought the demand should have come sooner, but speculated the industrial action was tolerated in the light of the protests that brought down the former president, Hosni Mubarak.
"I think it is a very late decision. The army should have given a firm statement for all kinds of sit-ins to stop immediately after Mubarak stepped down," Sami Mahmoud, a board member of the Nile Company food distributor, said AP.
"Though this statement should have come way earlier, I think the army was just allowing people to take their chance to voice their demands and enjoy the spirit of freedom," said Walid Abdel-Sattar, a businessman in the power industry.
12.42pm, Algeria: AP has more detail on the protests in Algiers, which have been disrupted by the police.
The planned rally by thousands of pro-democracy activists was broken up into isolated groups in a bid to keep them from marching, the news agency reports.
Ali Yahia Abdenour, of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights, was undeterred by the police clampdown. He shouted: "We want democracy, the sovereignty of the people."
Another demonstrator, 23-year-old Khalifa Lahouazi, a university student from Tizi Ouzou, east of the capital, told the news agency he "came here to seek my legitimate rights".
"We're living an insupportable life with this system. It's the departure of the system, not just [President] Bouteflika, that we want."
12.48pm, Bahrain: Reuters is reporting a mixed reaction to the withdrawal of troops from the streets of Bahrain.
Jasim Hussain, a member of the main opposition Shia bloc known as Wefaq, described the order from the Gulf state's crown prince as "a very positive step".
"They're trying to ease the tensions. I don't know whether it will be sufficient."
Wefaq had earlier rejected a call by King Hamad for a national dialogue to end the unrest in the country. The group had said troops must be withdrawn and other conditions met before talks could go ahead.
Ibrahim Mattar, another Wefaq member, said the troop pullout was not enough to secure a dialogue with the regime as the police were still taking action against protesters.
There's no difference if people are killed by the military or by the security forces. We hope to hear a clear message from the government that it will stop killing people who are protesting peacefully.
Mattar said the king must also accept the concept of constitutional monarchy. "Then we can go for a temporary government of new faces that would not include the current interior or defence ministers."
He disputed the portrayal of the unrest as a sectarian dispute between Sunni and Shia people.
We are not going to enter a dialogue as Shi'ites. They try to put the issue in this frame. The dialogue should be with all people who were protesting. Some are liberal, non-Islamic. Some are Sunni and some Shi'ite.1.08pm, Libya and Iran: Clashes are continuing with anti-government protesters in Libya between Benghazi and Al Bayda, Reuters reports a security source as saying. The area was "80% under control ... a lot of police stations have been set on fire or damaged", the source said.
Local people say security forces have killed dozens of people in the past 72 hours.
In Iran, the opposition has called for new street protests to commemorate the killing of two pro-democracy youths during anti-government rallies held last week.
Saane Zhaleh, 26 and Mohammad Mokhtari, 22, were killed in Tehran when security officials used teargas, batons and then gunfire to disperse the crowd. Dozens were injured and at least 250 arrested.
1.35pm, Bahrain: Now that the crown prince has ordered troops off the streets, thousands of protesters have retaken Pearl Square, which is where demonstrations in the country kicked off, AP is reporting.
Demonstrators carrying Bahraini flags, flowers and signs that said "Peaceful, peaceful" marched into the square chanting "We are victorious" as armoured vehicles and riot police withdrew.
1.42pm, Bahrain: Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa has called for a national day of mourning "for the sons we have lost" in the violent crackdown, Reuters reports.
In a statement put out by Bahrain's national news agency the prince called for calm, asking people to unite and co-operate with all political forces in the country.
I stress, once more, that our duty is to preserve security and stability, to ensure that there is no discord and that the situation does not worsen. Join us to calm the situation, so that we can announce a day of mourning for our lost sons.3.07pm, Egypt and Morocco: An opposition party in Egypt has been allowed to register after 15 years trying, according to Reuters.
The Wasat party was founded by Abou Elela Mady, who broke away from the Muslim Brotherhood in the mid-1990s. Wasat means "centre". Mady had been trying to get the party licensed since 1996 but ended up in a military court accused of running it as an Islamist front.
Mady has told Reuters:
This decision is the fruit of the 25 January revolution. If it wasn't for the winds of freedom that blew with the revolution we would not have got this licence.
In Morocco, Reuters is reporting attacks on a police station and French firms in Tangier but says it is all about a utilities contract won by a French firm over a Moroccan one, and nothing to do with an upcoming rally for political reform.
3.32pm, Libya: Security forces in Benghazi have shot dead at least one person and injured a dozen after opening fire on mourners at a funeral for 35 protesters killed in the violent unrest.
A hospital official told Reuters that snipers were firing from the top of the Benghazi security headquarters.
They tried to attack the security forces but when they heard shots fired in the air they ran away.
Local cleric Abellah al-Warfali told al-Jazeera that he had a list of 16 people being buried, most with bullet wounds to the head and chest.
I saw with my own eyes a tank crushing two people in a car. They hadn't done any harm to anyone.The private Quryna newspaper, which is based in Benghazi and has been linked to one of Gaddafi's sons, said 24 people were killed in Benghazi on Friday.
It said security forces "were forced to use bullets" to stop protesters attacking the police headquarters and a military base where weapons were stored.
4.09pm, Kuwait: Police fired teargas at 300 stateless Arabs demanding citizenship at a protest in a village outside Kuwait City, AP reports.
Maha al-Barjas, of the Kuwaiti Human Rights Society, told the news agency seven people were wounded.
4.35pm, Libya: Here's another video posted on YouTube showing at least five people killed in the unrest in Benghazi. Please be warned, these are graphic images of dead bodies.
Another YouTube clip purports to show the first footage of protests in the city of Mesrata, with people chanting, "The people want the toppling of the regime".
Here's an archive of video footage, including media reports and YouTube clips, of the unrest in Libya.4.43pm, Libya : The Libya 17th February blog is showing a Google map of the pro-democracy protests across the country.
Meanwhile al-Jazeera television is investigating reports that its signal has been disrupted in countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.A spokesman said: "We are not sure of the cause but we are looking into it."
5.15pm: Russia Today has an interview with James Denselow, a Middle East expert from Kings College London and Guardian contributor, who says that the unrest across the Arab world has emerged from a combination of problems with the political structures of those states and the impact of the internet and social media on protest movements. He says:
The reverberations from what happened in Tunisia are now being felt in every state.
5.20pm: We're winding down today's liveblog but we'll have further coverage on Sunday, as well as in the Observer.
In the meantime, here's a roundup of today's main developments:
• Libya: Security forces in Benghazi have shot dead at least one person and injured a dozen after opening fire on mourners at a funeral for protesters killed in earlier demonstrations. Special forces stormed a protest camp in the eastern city at 5am.
• Bahrain: Thousands of protesters have retaken Pearl Square in the Bahraini capital after Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa ordered troops off the streets.
• Yemen: One protester was killed and seven were hurt in clashes with security forces in the capital, Sana'a.
• Algeria: Riot police in Algiers have broken up a planned march by thousands of pro-democracy campaigners.
Saturday, 19 February 2011
Libya and Bahrain protests – Saturday 19 February | World news | guardian.co.uk
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