The fighting in Benghazi started on 17 February, after two days of protests in the city. Security forces opened fire on protesters, killing 14. The next day, a funeral procession for one of those killed passed the Katiba compound. Accounts differ on whether mourners began throwing stones first or the soldiers from Katiba opened fire without provocation. In the end, another 24 people from the opposition protesters were killed. Following the massacre, two policemen, who were accused of shooting the protestors, were hanged by the opposition. Police and army personnel later withdrew from the city after being overwhelmed by protesters. Some army personnel joined the protesters and helped them seize the local state-controlled radio station. In Bayda, unconfirmed reports indicated that local poli
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| - The fighting in Benghazi started on 17 February, after two days of protests in the city. Security forces opened fire on protesters, killing 14. The next day, a funeral procession for one of those killed passed the Katiba compound. Accounts differ on whether mourners began throwing stones first or the soldiers from Katiba opened fire without provocation. In the end, another 24 people from the opposition protesters were killed. Following the massacre, two policemen, who were accused of shooting the protestors, were hanged by the opposition. Police and army personnel later withdrew from the city after being overwhelmed by protesters. Some army personnel joined the protesters and helped them seize the local state-controlled radio station. In Bayda, unconfirmed reports indicated that local poli
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| Strength
| - 325(xsd:integer)
- 10000(xsd:integer)
- Fadheel Brigade
- Khamis Brigade
- Tariq Brigade
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| Date
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| Commander
| - Abdul Fatah Younis
- Al-Saadi Gaddafi
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| Caption
| - A government revolutionary committee office after it was torched by demonstrators, in Benghazi's downtown.
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| Casualties
| - 3(xsd:integer)
- 163(xsd:integer)
- Bayda: 63 killed
- Benghazi: 110-257 killed, 9 missing
- Derna: 29 killed
- Rebel soldiers: 130 killed
- Total: 332-479 killed, 9 missing
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| Result
| - Decisive Anti-Gaddafi victory
- *Beginning of the Libyan civil war
*Benghazi becomes a core of the Anti-Gaddafi forces
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| combatant
| - Gaddafi Loyalists
* Libyan Armed Forces
* Paramilitary forces
- Anti-Gaddafi forces
* Defected army units
* Armed protesters
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| Place
| - Benghazi, Bayda, Derna, Libya
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| Conflict
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| abstract
| - The fighting in Benghazi started on 17 February, after two days of protests in the city. Security forces opened fire on protesters, killing 14. The next day, a funeral procession for one of those killed passed the Katiba compound. Accounts differ on whether mourners began throwing stones first or the soldiers from Katiba opened fire without provocation. In the end, another 24 people from the opposition protesters were killed. Following the massacre, two policemen, who were accused of shooting the protestors, were hanged by the opposition. Police and army personnel later withdrew from the city after being overwhelmed by protesters. Some army personnel joined the protesters and helped them seize the local state-controlled radio station. In Bayda, unconfirmed reports indicated that local police and riot control units joined the protesters. Two days earlier, on 16 February, it was also reported that Islamist gunmen, with the help of a defecting army colonel, stormed an arms depot in Derna and seized 250 weapons and an assortment of 70 military vehicles. During the raid four soldiers were killed and 16 wounded. By the end of 18 February, the only place that still housed a significant number of Gaddafi loyalists in Benghazi was the Katiba compound. On 19 February, another funeral procession passed the Katiba compound en route to the cemetery in an act of defiance and were again fired upon by Gaddafi loyalists in the compound. By this time, some 325 mercenaries from southern Africa were flown into Benghazi and other towns in the east to help restore order. During 18 and 19 February, there were major retaliatory attacks by the opposition forces against the mercenaries. 50 African mercenaries were executed by the protesters in Bayda. Some died when protestors burned down the police station in which they locked them up and 15 were lynched in front of the courthouse in Bayda. Following the second attack on a funeral, opposition forces commandeered bulldozers and tried to breach the walls of the Katiba compound, often retreating under heavy fire. As the fighting continued, a mob attacked a local army base on the outskirts of Benghazi and forced the soldiers to give up their weapons, including three small tanks. Opposition members then rammed those tanks into the Katiba compound's walls. Days later, the burned hulks of the armored vehicles could still be seen, stuck halfway into the breaches they made.
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