BENGHAZI, Libya, March 20 — At least 24 bodies of fighters and civilians, many charred beyond recognition, lay in the morgue of Benghazi’s main hospital in Libya today, a Reuters correspondent said.

The hospital’s wards were filled with men, women and children wounded in yesterday’s assault by Muammar Gaddafi’s forces.

In one room lay eight bodies of Gaddafi’s fighters. Morgue attendants said three of them were mercenaries from Chad or Niger.

One doctor, Ibrahim Beheih, said that by Saturday night 32 deaths had been recorded in the hospital and 66 wounded.

The Reuters correspondent counted 24 bodies in the morgue but more may have been stored in refrigeration units.

French planes fired the first shots yesterday in a campaign to force Gaddafi’s troops to cease fire and end attacks on civilians. The warplanes destroyed tanks and armoured vehicles in the region of the rebels’ eastern stronghold, Benghazi. — Reuters