UN chief calls for ceasefire in Libya

Ban Ki-moon calls for Libyan regime to halt attacks on civilians as NATO continues Tripoli bombardment. Last Modified: 11 May 2011 09:58

Libyan rebels said they had made gains by driving back Gaddafi's troops [AFP] Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, has called for an "immediate, verifiable ceasefire'' in Libya and urged government forces to stop attacking civilians. Ban said on Wednesday there must also be unimpeded access for humanitarian workers trying to deliver aid to those affected by the fighting. "First and foremost there should be an end to the fighting in Misrata and elsewhere. Then we will be able to provide humanitarian assistance and in parallel we can continue our political dialogue," Ban said. Ban's comments followed a call from Valerie Amos, the UN humanitarian chief, ofor a pause in hostilities to allow food, water, medical supplies and other aid to be delivered to needy populations. Meanwhile, NATO said a renewed bombing campaign against Tripoli was not targeting Muammar Gaddafi personally, as explosions rocked the Libyan capital once again overnight. Explosions could be heard in eastern Tripoli for almost an hour early on Wednesday morning as jets flew overhead, a witness told the AFP news agency. The explosions began about 7:30 am (0530 GMT) and continued sporadically until 8:15 am (0615 GMT), the witness said. On Tuesday, NATO launched strikes in Tripoli on targets that appeared to include Gaddafi's compound, witnesses said. "All NATO targets are military targets, which means that the targets we've been hitting, and it happened also last night in Tripoli, are command and control bunkers," Brigadier General Claudio Gabellini, chief operations officer of NATO's Libya mission told reporters. Making gains Libyan rebels said they had made gains by driving back Gaddafi's troops on the eastern and western edges of the port city of Misurata and encircling them at the airport. The rebels said they had taken the town of Zareek on Tuesday, about 25km west of Misurata, but no independent verification of the rebel statements was available, Reuters reported. Misurata - besieged by Gaddafi's forces for eight weeks - is strategically important to rebel hopes of overthrowing the Libyan leader because it is the only city they hold in the west of the North African country. After two months of revolt linked to this year's uprisings in other Arab countries, the war has reached a stalemate. Rebels hold Benghazi and other towns in the oil-producing east, while the government controls the capital and almost all of the west. On Wednesday Catherine Ashton, the European Union foreign policy chief, announced plans to open an office in Benghazi to facilitate assistance to the rebel council based there. "I intend to open an office in Benghazi so that we can move forward on the support we've discussed to the people... to support civil society, to support the Interim Transitional National Council," Ashton told the European Parliament. She said EU support would include help for security sector reform and institution-building. "We want to help with education, with health care, with security on the borders," she said.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies