Seven civilian were allegedly killed and one more injured by Gaddafi forces during protests in Al Bayda.

Al Jazera said: “The number of martyrs in Al-Bayda, east of Benghazi, increased to 7, and the security forces injured a 13-year-old child in the leg with rubber bullets.”

Amnesty International wrote: “In al-Bayda, a protester and a bystander were killed on 16 February, a day prior to the planned “Day of Rage”, during a demonstration against the arrest of activists (see Chapter 1). The protester was Sa’ad Hamed Salah al-Yamani, a 20-year-old student. His father told Amnesty International: ‘He asked for me for permission to go to the peaceful demonstration. He went out at about 6.30pm and at about 7.45pm his best friend got a call to go to the hospital and when he went there he found Sa’ad dead.’ Sa’ad’s friend Hazem Ahmed Mohammed al-Faidi, who was with Sa’ad when he was killed and who was himself shot, told Amnesty International: ‘We went for a peaceful demonstration. We walked past the Commercial Bank, where the security forces threw tear gas, and went on to the ISA building to call for the release of the people arrested the previous day. We were outside the main door, at the back of ‘Uruba Street, by the market. They shot in the air from the guard room on the ground floor and then shot live bullets. I was shot in the right flank and in the right arm. Sa’ad was standing two or three metres from me and was shot immediately after me; he was shot in the face and collapsed. He died immediately.”

The local time of the incident is unknown.