Accounts differ on whether mourners began throwing stones first or the soldiers from Katiba opened fire without provocation.

Some army personnel joined the protesters and helped them seize the local state-controlled radio station.

[12] In Bayda, unconfirmed reports indicated that local police and riot control units joined the protesters.

[13] 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.

[14] By the end of 18 February, the only place that still housed a significant number of Gaddafi loyalists in Benghazi was the Katiba compound.

By this time, some 325 mercenaries from southern Africa were flown into Benghazi and other towns in the east to help restore order.

[4][15] 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.

[16] In the afternoon, Libyan Interior Minister Abdul Fatah Younis showed up with a special forces squad called the "Thunderbolt" to relieve the besieged barracks.