20 reported dead in Libya as thousands take to streets

(CNN) -- Amid burials and prayers, tens of thousands of Libyans took to the streets Friday to air their discontent with four decades of Moammar Gadhafi, the longest-ruling president in the world, witnesses said.

At least 20 people were killed and 200 were injured in the northern Mediterranean city of Benghazi, Libya's second largest, said a medical source in Benghazi, who was not identified for security reasons.

CNN was unable to independently verify the information.

One crowd of protesters carried the bodies of those killed in clashes with security forces earlier this week to the cemetery, said a protester, whose name has also been withheld for his safety.

Another large crowd converged in front of the main courthouse, which has transformed into the Benghazi's Tahrir Square, the Cairo plaza that was the center of Egypt's revolution which toppled Hosni Mubarak a week ago.

The protester said people were chanting for Gadhafi and his children to get out of Libya. He called Gadhafi's authoritarian rule "the biggest dictatorship in history."

Though the outside world may not know much about his country, the protester said, "if you live here in Libya you know what I am talking about."

Further east in al-Baida, thousands of people showed up to bury 13 protesters reportedly killed in clashes in recent days, said Mohamed Abdallah of the opposition National Front for the Salvation of Libya, who has been receiving information from Libya from sources there.

Plain-clothes members of the Revolutionary Committee reportedly fired at the protesters, Abdallah said.

Demonstrations were unfolding Friday in several other cities as well, he said.

CNN has not been permitted to report from Libya and cannot confirm information on the demonstrations.

The government maintains strict control of the media and telephone services and many people are afraid to talk amid a climate of fear. CNN has been depending on reliable information from protesters, human rights groups as well as other foreign-based Lybian organizations assessing the situation through their sources on the ground.

It's unclear how many people have been killed or injured since the demonstrations erupted in Libya Tuesday after the detention of a human rights lawyer. But Human Rights Watch said security forces killed at least 24 people and wounded many others in an ensuing crackdown.

The global monitoring group urged Libyan authorities to refrain from the use of lethal force unless absolutely necessary and open an investigation into the deaths that have already occurred.

The protests spread Thursday across Libya from Benghazi in the north to Kufra in the south. They were expected to gain momentum Friday, Islam's day of prayer, because of the planned funerals of those who have died in the protests.

"The security forces' vicious attacks on peaceful demonstrators lay bare the reality of Moammar Gadhafi's brutal rule when faced with any internal dissent," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director for Human Rights Watch.

Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, also condemned the crackdown in Libya and other countries in the region "as illegal and excessively heavy-handed."

"This is a country where the human rights situation has generally been very closed to international scrutiny, including by us, but much of the population seems nevertheless to have the same human rights aspirations as people everywhere else," Pillay said about Libya.

Abdallah, the spokesman for the National Front for the Salvation of Libya, reported that protesters in Benghazi had freed people who were detained in the first two days of the unrest. He said protesters also set afire a police station and the Revolutionary Committee headquarters in Benghazi, al-Baida and Darna.

Gadhafi's regime, however, has sought to portray a different picture of events and sent out tacit warnings via mobile phone texts to Libyans planning to make their voices known.

"The inappropriate use of telecommunications services contradicts our religion ... our customs ... and our traditions," said a text from the General Communications Body.

Another said: "We commend the conscious youth who have realized that sedition destroys his family, his city, his country. And we commend our cities who have realized that touching national unity destroys the prospects of future generations. Together for the sake of the Libya of Tomorrow."

A screen grab of the messages were sent to CNN from Abdulla Darrat, spokesman of Enough Gaddafi, a U.S.-based organization that has been in close touch with people on the streets of Libya.

State-run television countered the anti-government protests with coverage of pro-Gadhafi demonstrations.

It showed men chanting pro-Gadhafi slogans, waving flags and singing around the Libyan leader's limousine as it crept through Tripoli. Scores of supportive demonstrators packed the roadway and held up pictures of their leader as fireworks burst into the night sky.

The images followed reports from protesters, witnesses and human rights activists who described brutality by internal security forces, sometimes dressed in plain clothes.

One of the protesters likened the situation in Libya to Egypt, telling Human Rights Watch that "they are sending baltaqiyyas (thugs) to beat us."

Libya, like many of its Arab neighbors, is suffering from economic hardship and a lack of political reform. Unemployment rates among the nation's youth are high.

Gadhafi is acutely aware of popular grievances and has spoken with groups of students, lawyers and journalists in the past few weeks and, a source told CNN earlier this week.