Libya protests: 'foreign mercenaries using heavy weapons against at demonstrators'

According to the Telegraph and a number of other sources, Gaddafi has been shipping in mercenary fighters from across northern Africa to massacre the protesters taking to the streets in an effort to end his 42 year rule.

"Tanks and helicopter gunships full of foreign mercenaries are fighting gangs of demonstrators. At least one dead man had been hit by an anti-aircraft missile, while other bodies are riddled with heavy machine gun fire."
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Omar added: "Tanks are being used in Benghazi, but there are already soldiers joining the demonstrators. They are on the side of the people." While low-paid Libyan army recruits are always likely to desert, the dictator's third son, Saadi Gaddafi, was said to be coordinating African mercenaries to act as shock troops against the protesters.

A Libyan journalist who is currently banned from writing about the trouble because of a news black-out imposed by Gaddafi said: "Some of these mercenary shock troops have been killed or captured, and some of them are said to on the equivalent of around 500 dollars a day.

"These killers are coming from countries like Chad. They're vicious killers. People are so terrified of them that they've been doing everything possible to get away."

There have been a number of videos leaked from Libya which seem to prove this assertion:

Mercenaries Deployed in Benghazi Libya today 18.02.11



Benghazi Mercenary found dead February 19th, 2011



African Mercenary killed in Libya