(CNN) — Messages and videos posted on social media sites today signaled that anti-government protests in Libya were gathering steam in several cities, with some turning violent on a “Day of Rage.”
There were reports of 16 deaths, but these could not be independently confirmed.
A text message sent out earlier on mobile phones had threatened Libyans planning to take to the streets, activists and bloggers said.
“From Libya’s youth to anyone who dares to cross any of the four red lines come and face us in any street on the ground of our beloved country,” the Short Message System dispatch said, referring to a speech by Saif el-Islam Gadhafi, Moammar Gadhafi’s son, in which he described the lines as Islamic law, the Quran, Libyan security and his father.
They apparently did little to deter demonstrators. Protests in the isolated North African nation broke out this week, part of a larger anti-government movement sweeping the region.
