TRIPOLI: Libyan rebels were reported to have taken control of Misrata airport on Wednesday after heavy fighting with forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi, while a United Nations call for a ceasefire was rejected.
A correspondent for the Qatar-based Al Jazeera television, speaking from Benghazi, quoted a rebel spokesman as saying "the rebels have taken complete control of the airport about half an hour ago". There was no independent confirmation.
The rebels are fighting to end Qaddafi’s 41 years in power but the war has reached stalemate with Qaddafi in control of the capital and almost the entire west of the country while rebels control Benghazi and other towns in the oil-producing east.
Misrata is the only major city the rebels hold in the west and for eight weeks Qaddafi’s forces have besieged it leading to fierce fighting in which hundreds have been killed.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Wednesday for an "immediate, verifiable ceasefire" in Libya but rebels fighting in western Libya dismissed the idea.
"We don’t trust Qaddafi … This is not the time for a ceasefire because he never respects it," said rebel spokesman Zintan Abdulrahman by telephone from Zintan in the Western Mountains region.
"He bombards civilians immediately after his regime speaks of willingness to observe a ceasefire," Abdulrahman said, adding that Qaddafi’s forces fired 20-25 Grad missiles on Wednesday at rebels on Wednesday, killing one and wounding three others.
Qaddafi’s government has made several ceasefire declarations but has continued attacks on Misrata and other rebel-held areas including the Western Mountains near the Tunisian border.
"Qaddafi must go"- EU
Ban spoke in Geneva after talks with Libya’s Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi.
"He (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," Ban told a news conference.
"But 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 added.
The European Union said it plans to open an office in Benghazi to help the rebel council there with health, education and border security.
"Let us … be clear, Qaddafi must go from power — he must end his regime," EU foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton said.
The Libyan government says the rebels are armed criminals and Al-Qaeda militants and that the majority of Libyans support Qaddafi, who has been in power since 1969.
It also says NATO’s intervention aimed at protecting civilians is an act of colonial aggression by Western powers bent on stealing the country’s oil.
Qaddafi has not appeared in public since April 30, when a NATO air strike on a house in the capital killed his youngest son and three of his grandchildren.
Reporting by Souheil Karam in Rabat, Joseph Nasr in Berlin, Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Barbara Lewis and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and David Brunnstrom in Brussels; writing by Matthew Bigg; editing by Giles Elgood.
