Bloggers missing in Libya: Amnesty

The human rights group says its workers in Libya have documented 30 cases of people who have disappeared in the eastern part of the country, some of them as pro-Gaddafi forces retreated from rebel attacks.

It fears Gaddafi's forces have taken the detainees to his strongholds in Western Libya.

"What we've got now is a beleaguered government trying to crush protesters," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's director for the Middle East and North Africa.

The detainees include:

- Adel Abdullah El-Gehani, a Libyan army colonel who began posting articles on the internet criticising human rights abuses under Gaddafi. He was arrested on January 14 by military intelligence officials, Amnesty International said.

- Ali Abdelounis al-Mansouri, who was arrested on February 2 by members of the Internal Security Agency after posting items on the internet calling for peaceful demonstrations.

- Mohammed Mosbah Soheim, a former reporter for the Cerene newspaper who had written articles calling for democratic reforms on websites and his Facebook page. He was taken from his home on February 16 by plainclothes security agents, Amnesty said.

At least nine protesters may have been seized by retreating Libyan forces as demonstrators swarmed the Kateeba al-Fadheel military compound in Benghazi on February 20, the rights group said.

They include two 14-year-old boys and two 16-year-old boys.

Other people have disappeared after heading to the front, either to fight with rebels or work as medics, Amnesty said.

Smart said the group's workers have not been able to get into Tripoli or other government-held areas but that it feared there could be many other cases of disappearances there.

Smart said rebel fighters seemed to be mostly respecting the rights of prisoners and noncombatants as they pressed westward with the help of foreign warplanes.

Telephone calls to the Libyan Embassy in Washington were not answered.