The deep-seated anger that gave Libyan people courage

''This is Ruquia Fauzi al-Mabrook,'' Ms Benguish says, pressing play on a video file. ''She was eight years old.'' In the video, which Ms Benguish says she took when the child's body was brought to the hospital last Sunday, the girl's skull above the eyes has been removed by a bullet.

''This was an anti-aircraft gun that they used, not a normal soldier's gun,'' she says. According to Ms Benguish, the girl was standing on a fourth-floor balcony watching the street below. ''This is a crime, a big crime that happened here. And there are so many. I made this film because otherwise I am afraid the world would not believe me.''

Next to Ms Benguish is Omar Khalid Ali, the hospital's chief general surgeon. ''Last weekend this hospital was covered in blood. Such a terrible mess I have never seen before in my life.''

Dr Ali walks into the hospital's intensive care unit to the bed of Issa al-Gubali, 42, a teacher and father of 10. He was shot trying to wrest control of the Labraq military airport, 20 kilometres east of Baida.

The bullet that entered his torso destroyed a kidney and his spleen and badly damaged his diaphragm and left lung.

What led an ordinary teacher like Mr Gubali, who was struggling to make ends meet on a salary of 400 dinars ($315) a month, end up trying to attack a military base when he is armed with nothing more than his hatred of the regime of Libya's dictator, Muammar Gaddafi?

''I was ready to give my life,'' he says. ''If I did not join the revolution, my children would point to this day and ask me, 'What did you do?' When my neighbour joined the fight, I did too.'' Like everyone else in Baida who spoke to the Herald, Mr Gubali never expected to be involved in an event like this.

On February 16, he says he was not even aware that a protest had been planned for the next day.

One of the people involved in organising that demonstration was Amal Hasmi Agluo, 24, a teacher's assistant who spent most of her teenage years in Wales where her father completed a doctorate.

''What made us brave? First we watched the revolution in Tunisia. Then Egypt. So then we said 'What about us?''' she says.

''People across the country were inspired to organise our own protests. Facebook pages sprung up, it was very quick and a date for protest was set down for February 17.''

At first Ms Agluo was not expecting much to come of the protests. ''We were afraid. We know Gaddafi. This guy is crazy. He could kill us for this but we decided that we had to do it.''

To maximise their chances of staying on the streets as long as possible, Ms Agluo says it was decided to organise the protest in a small corner of the city that was difficult for local security forces to reach.

''Hundreds of soldiers had been flown in to put down the protest,'' Ms Agluo says. She believes many of them were not Libyan as they were speaking mainly French and other languages she could not identify.

''When they started shooting to kill us, I felt that we had reached a point of no return. This became the fight of my life, that if we did not keep going, then Gaddafi was going to kill us.''

It took five days but by Monday the protesters had won. Bayda was in the hands of its citizens.

Dr Ali said at least 63 people were killed and the hospital treated 400 wounded.

A former law professor, Abdallah al-Mahob, 76, witnessed Gaddafi's overthrow of King Idriss in 1969. He said people had many reasons to fight. ''Libya is only 6 million people. With all the oil we have, we are one of the richest countries in the world, yet the people are among the world's poorest,'' Dr Mahob says. ''Under King Idriss we had a constitution that put the rule of law above everyone and guaranteed us certain freedoms. Gaddafi took that away and he gave us nothing in return.''

Issa Ibrahim Abdallah, 62, an agricultural engineer, says he joined the revolution in search of freedom. ''For the last 30 years, the only thing we have in Libya is decay. There is no freedom, no right to talk. Newspapers? Two or three, but from Tripoli. They come three days late and are all full of Gaddafi's opinions anyway.''

The desire for a free and democratic society motivated Ramadan Jaeid, 47, an English teacher. ''We have heard so many promises that things will get better and better but they get worse and worse as we watch these criminals, Gaddafi and his sons. Gaddafi tricked the people of Libya. He played a very big, cruel joke on us and we just had enough.''

On Thursday evening, most of those interviewed for this story gathered at the Bayda People's Congress. The building's two-tiered, domed legislative chamber was packed with a crowd that appeared to include as many men as women - many holding anti-Gaddafi placards.

The largest banner had the words ''17th of February. The Day of Freedom. 42 Years. More than enough. Go away.'' written in English.

Behind a lectern draped with the old red, black and green tricolour that was Libya's flag when it gained independence in 1951, a thick crowd waited their turn to speak.

Ostensibly a meeting of the newly established revolutionary committee of Bayda to discuss how they would run the city in the sudden absence of a national government, the meeting quickly turned into a celebration. Most people told their stories of why they participated and urged other Libyans still under Gaddafi's control not to give up.

The speaker who received the loudest applause was Amal Hasmi Agluo. With her veil revealing only her eyes, Ms Agluo said the thing that had offended people most in the past week was Gaddafi's frenzied address to the nation on Monday.

''Contemptible lies about how all the protesters were rats. But what offended me most was this utter nonsense that we are Islamic extremists, or that we are joined with al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. This revolution has nothing, nothing to do with Islam. It is a revolution born of peaceful, freedom-loving people.''

So what happens next? While Gaddafi has lost control of the east of the country, he retains the west. For men such as Dr Ali, nothing short of immediate international intervention is necessary to stop Gaddafi doing more damage.

''I honestly believe this man is a paranoid schizophrenic. If he had nuclear weapons, I think he would use them against his own people. He would rather see his family killed than lose his grip on power,'' Dr Ali says.

''So I say to the United Nations, please, no more talk. No sanctions, which hurt the people and not Gaddafi. What we need is strong action. And we need it now, urgently, as soon as possible, please.''