Clash breaks out as Libya braces for ‘Day of Anger’

Security forces intervened to halt a confrontation between supporters of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi,who has been in power for more than 40 years,and the demonstrators,it said.

The veteran leader is facing rare Internet calls for protests tomorrow by activists buoyed by the ouster of veteran strongmen on its eastern and western borders,in Egypt and Tunisia.

One of the Facebook groups calling for a “Day of Anger” in Libya and anti-regime protest that had 4,400 members on Monday more than doubled in number to 9,600 by this morning after the Benghazi unrest.

Three demonstrators and 10 members of the security forces were injured,a hospital director said,quoted in Quryna,which is close to Gaddafi’s son,Seif al-Islam,without identifying the other casualty.

None of the injuries was serious,it said.

The protest was started by families of prisoners killed in a 1996 shooting in Tripoli’s Abu Salim prison demanding the release of their lawyer,Fethi Tarbel,the paper said.

A website,Libya Al-Youm,said earlier that the unrest prompted a show of strength by supporters of Gaddafi in a number of cities.

Police had used force to disperse the crowd gathered outside a police post in Benghazi,it said,while the BBC quoted witnesses as saying stones were thrown at police who responded with tear gas,water cannon and rubber bullets.

Tarbel,who had been arrested for unknown reasons,was freed under pressure from the families,according to Quryna. But the crowd of protesters grew and they began chanting anti-regime slogans such as “The people will end the corruption” and “The blood of the martyrs will not be in vain,” before police moved in to disperse them.

Soon afterwards,state television showed hundreds of demonstrators in the streets of Benghazi as well as Tripoli,Syrte and Sebha in support for Gaddafi,who seized power in a 1969 coup which ousted a Western-backed monarchy.

It broadcast footage of pro-regime demonstrators on foot and in cars,waving Libyan flags and portraits of Gaddafi. They chanted slogans against the Arab news channel Al-Jazeera,accused by the regime of having incited revolts.

Tomorrow’s protest has been called to commemorate the deaths of 14 protesters in 2006 in an Islamist rally in Benghazi.

Libya has been tightly controlled by leader Muammar Gaddafi for over 40 years but has also felt the ripples from popular revolts in its neighbours Egypt and Tunisia.

Some Libyans complain about high unemployment,income inequality and limits on political freedoms,but analysts say an Egypt-style revolt is unlikely there because the government can use its vast energy revenues to placate unhappy citizens.

A video clip posted on the YouTube site by someone who said it was recorded in Benghazi on Tuesday night showed a crowd of people outside what looked like a government building chanting: No God but God! and Corruption is the enemy of God.

HISTORY OF DISTRUST

People in Benghazi have a history of distrust of Gaddafi’s rule. Many of his most ardent opponents living in exile,and many of the people jailed for membership of banned Islamist militant groups,are from the city.

According to the reports from Benghazi,the unrest was triggered by the arrest of a man called Fethi Tarbel,a human rights activist who worked with families of people detained in Tripoli’s notorious Abu Salim jail.

The prison,used to hold government opponents and Islamist militants,was the scene of violent clashes in June 1996 in which 1,000 inmates were shot dead.

On Tuesday night,a crowd of people in Benghazi who had relatives in the prison marched on local government offices to demand Tarbel’s release,Quryna newspaper reported.

It said a local official agreed to free him,but the protesters marched anyway to the city’s Shajara square where they clashed with police and government supporters.

The protesters later dispersed and the square was taken over by government supporters who rallied there until the early hours of the morning,Quryna reported.

Libyan state television showed footage of an early-morning rally in the Libyan capital,Tripoli,of government supporters.

Participants chanted slogans accusing Qatar-based television news channel Al Jazeera — which has given wide coverage to revolts that overthrew the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt — of broadcasting lies.

Libya’s state-run Jana news agency said there were also pro-Gaddafi rallies in other cities,including Benghazi.

It said people taking part held up portraits of Gaddafi and chanted: We sacrifice our blood and souls for you our leader! and We are a generation built by Muammar and anyone who opposes it will be destroyed!

In a possible reaction to the unrest in Benghazi,Libya will free 110 members of banned militant group the Libyan Islamic Fighting group from Abu Salim prison later on Wednesday,a human rights activist said.

Dozens of men accused of membership of the group have been freed since last year,when its leaders renounced violence.