In mourning but still defiant, Benghazi's residents today buried their dead and assessed the damage to their city and their military gains after a deadly battle against government troops.

In Hawari cemetery, hundreds of men gathered to bury those killed in fighting overnight. The mourners, all men and many in military fatigues, wept openly in each others' arms.

Some were overcome by the scene -- two long trenches dug into the massive cemetery, spaces for each cloth-wrapped body marked by a stone, the bodies laid down one-by-one to the sound of gunfire and chants of "God is great."

The mood in the cemetery and across the city, where the signs of a sustained battle could be seen, was defiant. Residents boasted of the retreat of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's troops, and heralded the support of international military enforcement of a United Nations-mandated no-fly zone.

"This is the beginning of the end and we hope he (Gaddafi) will never rule us again," said Jomaa al-Jazwi, 62, a former high court judge in the rebel stronghold.

His 31-year-old son was killed fighting Gaddafi's troops as they entered the city from the south and west yesterday morning, prompting fierce battles that killed tens of people.

"I spent 15 years in prison without charge, and they killed my son," he said, tears in his eyes as mourners paid their respects.

"Even if we have to lose all our sons, we will have freedom."

In the Jala hospital, the morgue was stacked with the bodies of those killed in the assault, with victims ranging in age from eight to 60.

Some were simply unidentifiable. One charred body lacked a head, another was reduced to no more than ashes in a bag.

Set aside from the bodies of Benghazi's residents were nine more corpses, those of Gaddafi fighters, strewn on a floor in a cell inside the morgue and guarded by armed men.

Curious children peered from outside, wide-eyed at the dried blood surrounded the yellowing feet of one man.

In another room, a rebel's body lay under a thick blue blanket, waiting to be cleaned and prepared for a Muslim burial, his name handwritten on a scrap of paper and taped to the cover.

"Yesterday, we called it a toxic situation, there were plenty of injuries, plenty of death, people in the intensive care unit," said 26-year-old Dr Majd al-Mujbari, in Jala's emergency unit.

At least 94 people were killed in Friday's assault on Benghazi, medics and AFP correspondents said today.

Some residents were still in critical condition in the hospital, but others relaxed on beds, smoking and chatting.

Ibrahim Mismari, 35, was injured on the road west of the city.

"Every time we advanced five metres (yards), a bomb or gunfire targeted us," he said. "The car was destroyed. We walked five hours across the desert to get here."

In Benghazi's southern neighbourhoods and outskirts, destroyed buildings and captured Gaddafi military materiel could be seen all around.

In the Tabolino district, rebels held a parade of sorts, a convoy of captured military trucks and weaponry, cheered on by bystanders and drivers.

On the road to al-Wafiya, 35 kilometres west of Benghazi, at least four tanks stood paralysed, some destroyed. The scorched vehicles -- T72s and T55s-- drew curious onlookers who were scolded by rebels retrieving bodies and leftover ammunition.

Yesterday, air strikes by foreign forces smashed Gaddafi tanks and artillery on a site 35 kilometres west of Benghazi, AFP correspondents and insurgents said.

Rebels said the attacks may have stopped the deadly three-pronged assault Gaddafi's forces launched shortly after his government pledged they would not attack Benghazi and were observing a ceasefire.

"If the French had not bombed yesterday evening, he would have made a massacre here," said Abdel Moneim al-Magrabi, a rebel fighter in the Benghazi neighbourhood of Qar Yunis.

"He wouldn't have taken this town, but it would have cost the lives of hundreds of thousands."