TRIPOLI – Libyan rebels said they took control of Misurata airport in heavy fighting with forces loyal to Col Muammar Gadafy yesterday and rejected a United Nations’ call for a ceasefire.
The rebels are fighting to end Col Gadafy’s 41 years in power, but the war has reached stalemate with Col Gadafy controlling the capital and almost all of western Libya while rebels control Benghazi and other towns in the oil-producing east.
Misurata is the only major city the rebels hold in the west. For eight weeks Col Gadafy’s forces have besieged it, leading to fierce fighting in which hundreds have been killed.
“The airport, with the help from great God, has been freed. The rebels have seized many weapons including tanks and, thank God, they are still functioning,” said rebel spokesman Mohamad Jaber by telephone from Misurata, a port city about 190km (118 miles) east of Tripoli.
“Now what is left and what the rebels are working on is liberating the airbase, which is close to the airport,” he said.
There was no independent confirmation of this.
The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, called yesterday for an “immediate, verifiable ceasefire” but rebels fighting in western Libya dismissed the idea.
“We don’t trust Gadafy . . . This is not the time for a ceasefire because he never respects it,” said a rebel spokesman, Abdulrahman, speaking by telephone from Zintan in the Western Mountains region. “He bombards civilians immediately after his regime speaks of willingness to observe a ceasefire,” he said, adding that Col Gadafy’s forces fired 20 to 25 Grad missiles at rebels yesterday, killing one and wounding three others.
Col Gadafy’s government has declared several ceasefires but continued attacks on Misurata and other rebel-held areas, including the Western Mountains near the Tunisian border.
The three-month revolt against Col Gadafy is linked to other uprisings this year against Arab governments. But divisions among rebel leaders are blunting their challenge to Col Gadafy and could unnerve foreign powers banking on them as a credible alternative government, according to analysts.
Mr Ban spoke in Geneva after talks with Libyan prime minister Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi.
“He [Mr Mahmoudi] even suggested the Libyan government was willing to have an immediate ceasefire with a monitoring team to be established by the United Nations and the African Union,” Mr Ban told a news conference. “But first and foremost there should be an end to the fighting in Misurata and elsewhere. Then we will be able to provide humanitarian assistance and in parallel we can continue our political dialogue.”
Col Gadafy has not appeared in public since April 30th, when a Nato air strike on a house in the capital killed his youngest son and three of his grandchildren.