20110218
reuetrs

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Soldiers sought to put down unrest in Libya's second city on Friday and opposition forces said they were fighting troops for control of a nearby town after crackdowns which Human Rights Watch said killed 24 people.

Protests inspired by the revolts that brought down long-serving rulers of neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia have led to violence unprecedented in Muammar Gaddafi's 41 years as leader of the oil exporting country.

The New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch said that according to its sources inside Libya, security forces had killed at least 24 people over the past two days. Exile groups have given much higher tolls which could not be confirmed.

Opponents of Gaddafi had designated Thursday a day of rage to try to emulate uprisings sweeping through North Africa and the Middle East. Unrest continued well into the night.

U.S. President Barack Obama said he was "deeply concerned" about reports of violence from Bahrain, a close U.S. ally, Libya and Yemen and urged governments to show restraint in dealing with protesters.

The demonstrations have been focused in the country's east, including its second largest city, Benghazi, where support for Gaddafi has been historically weaker than in the rest of the country. The area is largely cut-off from international media.

"Last night was very hard, there were a lot of people in the street, thousands of people. I saw soldiers in the street," a resident who lives on Benghazi's main thoroughfare, Nasser Street, told Reuters.

"I heard shooting. I saw one person fall down (from a gunshot wound) but I don't have a figure for casualties."

The privately-owned Quryna newspaper, based in Benghazi, said security forces overnight fired live bullets at protesters, killing 14 of them. It published photographs of several people lying on hospital stretchers with bloodstained bandages.