AhlulBayt News Agency

source : AFP
Friday

4 March 2011

8:30:00 PM
229633

Eight killed in Libyan fresh clashes

Fresh clashes between anti-government protesters and forces loyal to Libyan ruler Moammar Gaddafi have left at least eight people dead and 21 injured.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The clashes took place on Saturday in the oil town of Ras Lanuf, Dr. Ahmad Burtima said.

"We have eight dead people after the fighting in Ras Lanuf and 21 injured. Two or three of them were moved to Benghazi hospital in a critical situation," Dr. Burtima told AFP at a hospital in the town of Ajdabiya.

On Friday, Tripoli residents demanding Gaddafi's downfall held rallies after the Friday prayers in the capital, where pro-Gaddafi forces used teargas to disperse them.

Meanwhile, the regime's troops kept a heavy military presence on main roads around the capital, where pro-Gaddafi forces have been searching cars at numerous checkpoints.

In the Libyan city of Benghazi, which is under the protesters' control, a massive rally was also held after the Friday prayers.

Thousands of people have been killed in the crackdown on protests by the Libyan regime in the past two weeks.

Libya's revolutionary forces have vowed to continue with their rallies until achieving victory.

Libya was formed in 1934 with Italy's colonization of Tripolitania, and Cyrenaica, the two provinces that the European country had won following a war with the Ottoman Empire.

Libya declared its independency from Italy in 1951, when King Idris formed a monarchy in the North African country.

Gaddafi, who led a military coup against King Idris, came to power and established "the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya" in 1969.

/106