Snipers shot protesters, artillery and helicopter gunships were used against crowds of demonstrators, and thugs armed with hammers and swords attacked families in their homes as the Libyan regime sought to crush the uprising.

“Dozens were killed … We are in the midst of a massacre here,” a witness told Reuters. The man said he helped take victims to hospital in Benghazi…

A Benghazi cleric, Abellah al-Warfali, said he had a list of 16 people who had been killed, most with bullet wounds to the head and chest. “I saw with my own eyes a tank crushing two people in a car,” he said. “They didn’t do any harm to anyone.”…

A Libyan journalist said of the African mercenaries: “The soldiers are vicious killers. People are so terrified of them that they’ve been doing everything possible to get away.

“Women and children were seen jumping off Giuliana Bridge in Benghazi to escape. Many of them were killed by the impact of hitting the water, while others were drowned.”