Beirut, February 21: Egyptian supporters of the Libyan uprising have rallied outside the Libyan embassy in Cairo, calling for the ouster of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The demonstrators also on Sunday urged an end to the violent suppression of pro-democracy protesters.
Libya’s second largest city of Benghazi saw the most brutal clampdown on the protesters on Sunday since the outset of uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.
Security forces fired at people who had gathered to mourn for the protesters killed during Saturday demonstrations in Benghazi.
Libya’s envoy to the Arab League Abdel Moneim al-Honi has submitted his resignation “in protest against the acts of repression and violence against demonstrators” and has joined the “revolution.”
The protests have also started in the capital Tripoli, witnesses said. Security forces have fired tear gas and used live ammunition to break up the crowd.
While protests inspired by the recent revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt continue, Libyan authorities have blamed “foreign elements” for what they called “striking at the country’s stability and security,” the official Libyan news agency, JANA, reported.
Meanwhile, people in Canada and the US have staged marches in solidarity with the Libyan protesters and against Gaddafi’s rule. Canadians urged their government to condemn the violence in Libya.
Lack of access of international media and human rights organizations to Libya has made it difficult to exactly give the death toll, but the number is said to be alarmingly increasing.
About 300 people have been reportedly killed in Libya during government’s violent crackdown on demonstrators fed up with Gaddafi’s four-decade authoritarian rule.
——–Agencies