Tripoli: Libyan security forces shot dead dozens of protesters as they struggled to stamp out a revolt in the second city Benghazi, and Bahrain's rulers began talks with the opposition as unrest continued to sweep the Middle East.
Anti-government demonstrators in Bahrain swarmed into Pearl Square in Manama on Saturday, putting riot police to flight in a striking victory for their cause and confidently setting up camp for a protracted stay.
In Libya's eastern city of Benghazi, a witness told Reuters snipers had fired at protesters from a fortified compound.
"Dozens were killed ... not 15, dozens. We are in the midst of a massacre here," said the resident, who did not want to be named. The man said he helped take the victims to a local hospital during Saturday's violence.
The Libyan authorities have not allowed foreign journalists into the country since the protests against Gaddafi erupted, and the witness' account could not be independently verified.
Human Rights Watch says 84 people have been killed in Libya since the protests began, the death toll a reflection of the ferocity of the security crackdown mounted in response to anti-government protests that sought to emulate uprisings in neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia.
Unrest has spread from those two countries, whose leaders were toppled, to Bahrain, Libya, Yemen, Oman, Kuwait and Djibouti as people take to the streets demanding political and economic change.
Anti-government protests met varying degrees of force in Yemen, Algiers and Djibouti, while an Egyptian court approved a new party in a landmark ruling. Authorities in Saudi Arabia detained activists trying to set up the kingdom's first political party.
In Libya, the violence was concentrated around Benghazi, 1,000 km (625 miles) east of the capital, where support for Gaddafi traditionally has been weaker than in the rest of the country.
There was no sign of a nationwide revolt, but Twitter was abuzz with talk of unrest in towns other than Benghazi. Reports ranged from the use of mercenaries and aircraft to mortars and artillery against protesters, but with foreign media banned from entering the country, they were impossible to verify.
Internet service has been cut off in Libya, but local Muslim leaders called for an end to the violence.
"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 of our beloved Libya to all of humanity, to all men and women of goodwill," they said in an appeal to Reuters.
The Benghazi witness told Reuters security forces had set up a 50-metre (yard) perimeter around their "command centre" and fired at anyone approaching it.
He said people were killed after protesters tried to break into the compound command. Another resident earlier said the security forces were confined to the compound.
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