And thousands of angry mourners have buried victims of a counter-offensive by Muammar Gaddafi's forces shooting guns in the air .. shouting "Down with Gaddafi!" and swearing to take vengeance.
Although there have been stirrings of a diplomatic effort to ease the crisis .. an opposition spokesman flatly ruled out any negotiations with Gaddafi saying his hands are tainted with blood.
US President Barack Obama has insisted Gaddafi leave office pledging to hold him and his loyalists accountable.
But Gaddafi's regime has stepped up its recruitment of mercenaries from other African countries with an official in neighbouring Mali saying that 200-300 men have left for Libya in the past week.
Chavez offers to mediate Libya crisis, rebels say no
According to the AFP, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez offered to mediate the Libyan crisis, officials said , adding that Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi was interested.
But Libyan rebels adamantly rejected the proposal and Western powers also dismissed the offer.
Information Minister Andres Izarra told AFP that Chavez discussed the proposal with Kadhafi in a telephone call, some two weeks after the start of a revolt that has left hundreds dead in the North African country.
"We can confirm Libya's interest in accepting this proposal, as well as the Arab League's" interest, Izarra said.
Chavez, an ally of Kadhafi, first floated the idea Monday of putting together an international peace mission with forces to try to reach a settlement that would avert a civil war.
Libyan rebels and others brushed aside the offer.
"We have a very clear statement. It's too late. Too much blood has been spilt," Mustafa Gheriani, a spokesman for the opposition's self-declared national council set up in the eastern city of Benghazi, told AFP.
The Arab League said it was "studying" the offer. But a source at the Arab League told AFP that a response to Chavez's proposal would have to be carefully considered.
"There is no rejection and there is no acceptance right now," the source said.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters, "You don't need an international commission to tell Colonel Kadhafi what he needs to do for the good of his country and the good of his people."
At a Washington news conference with Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, President Barack Obama called on Kadhafi to give up power for the good of his country, and said he was reviewing the "full range" of military options, including a no-fly zone.
France also rejected the Chavez mediation offer, with Foreign Minister Alain Juppe saying that "any mediation that allows Colonel Kadhafi to succeed himself is obviously not welcome."
Juppe spoke after meeting in Paris with British Foreign Minister William Hague, who said he held "the view that the speediest way to bring about an end to the bloodshed is for Colonel Kadhafi to leave."
The rebels in Benghazi, meanwhile, were adamant that they would "never negotiate with anybody on the blood of our people."
"The only way we can negotiate with Chavez is if Kadhafi goes to Venezuela (for good)," said Gheriani. "Then we'll ask him to have Kadhafi back in Libya to be prosecuted by our justice."
Chavez said earlier this week that any foreign military intervention in Tripoli would be "a catastrophe."
He and Kadhafi routinely make public condemnations of US "imperialism" and have exchanged visits in recent years. Ties are so close that Kadhafi was rumored at one point to have fled to Caracas, claims that were later denied.
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