Libyan rebels claim seizing Misurata airport

Libyan rebels in the besieged western city of Misurata captured the city’s airport on Wednesday, marking another advance against forces loyal to long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi days after oppositon fighters broke through their lines to the west.

“This is a major victory,” rebel fighter Abdel Salam told the AP news agency. He said five rebels had been killed and 105 injured in the fighting.

Rebel sources told Al Jazeera that they had also taken the military airbase, which is part of the same facility, though other reports described pockets of ongoing fighting in the area.

Misurata is Libya’s third-largest city and the most significant opposition stronghold in the west of the country, where the uprising against Gaddafi has been weaker.

The city has been surrounded for weeks and split roughly along an east-west road. Throughout the fighting, Gaddafi’s forces have controlled the area south of the road, including the airport, which lies around five kilometres from the city centre and Tripoli Street, a main avenue that was the scene of vicious fighting for weeks.

Rebels have fought Gaddafi loyalists street by street for weeks, and the taking of the airport represents a significant territorial gain. The advance comes two days after rebels broke through the government’s lines west of Misurata, reportedly pushing as far as Qaryat az Zurayq, around 20km away.

In the east, rebels have recently advanced on Brega, a key oil town that government troops have held since early April. Rather than attempt to take the town during their assault on Tuesday, rebel forces reportedly withdrew to allow NATO planes to strike any government vehicles that participated in a counterattack.

Ceasefire call

As opposition forces appeared to make gains in both the west and east, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, called on Wednesday for an “immediate, verifiable ceasefire” and urged government forces to stop attacking civilians.

Ban said humanitarian workers trying to deliver aid to those affected by the fighting must be allowed unimpeded access.

“First and foremost, there should be an end to the fighting in Misurata and elsewhere,” Ban said. “Then we will be able to provide humanitarian assistance and in parallel we can continue our political dialogue.”

Ban’s comments followed a similar call from Valerie Amos, the UN humanitarian chief, for a pause in hostilities to allow food, water, medical supplies and other aid to be delivered to needy populations.

NATO says not targeting Gaddafi

In Tripoli, the capital, a renewed bombing campaign could be heard overnight, but NATO said it was not targeting Gaddafi himself.

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 Libyan state news agency, JANA, said the North Korean Embassy had been badly damaged by fragments from a NATO missile fired on Monday.

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.

Gabellini added that NATO did not know the whereabouts of Gaddafi, who hasn’t been seen in public since an April 30 air strike killed one of his sons.

“To tell the truth we’re not really interested in what he is doing,” Gabellini said.

However, on Wednesday, Libyan state television showed video of what it said is Gaddafi meeting a group of tribal leaders.

It is not possible to tell if the video is from Wednesday, but if it is, this would be the first time the Libyan leader has been seen in public since the April 30 NATO strike on a house that killed his son and three of his grandchildren.

Growing EU support

On Wednesday EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton 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.