UN alarmed by Libya’s rising civilian toll as rebels claim victory in key oil port

UN leader Ban Ki-moon on Thursday expressed alarm over the rising number of civilian casualties in the Libya conflict, including those inflicted in NATO airstrikes, as the Libyan rebels said they captured a key oil terminal that has repeatedly changed hands in the 6-month-old civil war.

Without specifically naming any side, Mr. Ban called on “all parties” to use “extreme caution” in the battle, said a UN statement. Mr. Ban also stepped up calls for a political solution to the conflict, in which rebels have sought to overthrow Muammar Qaddafi’s four-decades-old regime.

“The secretary general is deeply concerned by reports of the unacceptably large number of civilian casualties as a result of the conflict in Libya,” said the statement, according to AFP.

“The secretary general calls on all parties to exercise extreme caution in their actions, in order to minimize any further loss of civilian life,” it added.

When asked if NATO was included in the message, a UN spokeswoman stressed the “all parties” phrase.

Mr. Ban has been a staunch defender of the NATO air campaign against Qaddafi, which began in March.

But the air attacks have drawn harsh criticism from members of the UN Security Council, including Russia, China, Brazil, India and South Africa, who say the action goes beyond UN resolutions on Libya.

UNESCO’s director general Irina Bokova this week branded as “unacceptable” a NATO attack on the Libyan state broadcasting headquarters in which three people died, saying that media should not be targeted.

NATO has insisted that its attacks are in keeping with UN resolutions passed this year which allow military action to protect civilians in Libya.

On Wednesday, Mr. Ban spoke with Qaddafi’s prime minister, Baghdadi Mahmoudi, to press for the protection of civilians and demand new efforts to find a political solution to the conflict, the United Nations said.

Mr. Ban told Mahmoudi “he was very troubled that there had been an absolute lack of progress in the efforts to find a politically negotiated solution” to the conflict, it said.

In the latest statement, Mr. Ban reaffirmed “his strongly held belief that there can be no military solution to the Libyan crisis,” according to AFP.

“A ceasefire that is linked to a political process which would meet the aspirations of the Libyan people is the only viable means to achieving peace and security in Libya.”

He urged Qaddafi and the rebels “to immediately engage” with special UN envoy Abdul Ilah Al Khatib, and “respond concretely and positively to the ideas presented to them, in order to end the bloodshed in the country.”

The former Jordanian foreign minister has spent months shuttling between Tripoli and the rebel base at Benghazi trying to start ceasefire talks between the Qaddafi regime and the rebels' governing council.

Libyan rebels battling Colonel Qaddafi’s troops along the country’s Mediterranean coast, meanwhile, said they captured a key oil terminal Thursday that has repeatedly changed hands in the 6-month-old civil war.

Rebel spokesman Mohammed Al Rijali said he was with the fighters in Brega when they gained control of the strategic port city, 125 miles (200 kilometers) southwest of the de-facto rebel capital of Benghazi, after three weeks of intense fighting.

“Brega is liberated,” Mr. Al Rijali told The Associated Press after nightfall.

Mr. Al Rijali, who spoke over the telephone from nearby Ajdabiya, didn’t provide any details or a casualty toll. His claim could not be immediately verified. Officials in the Libyan capital Tripoli made no comment on the rebel claim.

Brega fell under rebel control briefly in March, but was recaptured by Colonel Qaddafi’s forces shortly afterward. The fighting around the city has gone back and forth since then, with the rebels not managing to keep their ground.

Brega’s capture would be an important boost for the rebels because whoever controls the strategic oil terminal, which is also Libya’s second-largest hydrocarbon complex, is in charge of the country’s main oil fields.

Another rebel spokesman, Mohammed Al Zawawi, said earlier Thursday that two rebels died in the day's fighting in Brega, while 16 others were wounded.

The revolt began in mid-February, with the rebels quickly wresting control of much of the eastern half of the country, as well as pockets in the west.

The conflict later settled into a stalemate with the rebels failing to budge the front lines in the east since April.

However, in recent weeks, rebels based in the western Nafusa mountains have made some gains, advancing toward Qaddafi-held towns along the coast.

On Thursday, hundreds of rebel fighters seized control of Nasser City, a small town about 16 miles (25 kilometer) south of the coastal town of Zawiya, after several hours of battle. Nasser City is the closest rebels have come to Tripoli, Colonel Qaddafi’s main stronghold, according to AP. Zawiya is just 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of the Libyan capital.

The streets of Nasser City were deserted and shops were shuttered, witnesses said. At one point, rebel fighters stopped at an abandoned gas station and filled up the tanks of their pickup trucks.

Video footage showed one rebel fighter climbing upon an earth mover to pull down a string of green pro-Qaddafi flags suspended from electricity poles. Another threw a green flag from a second floor balcony, replacing it with the rebels’ tricolor. “Nasser City has been liberated,” he shouted.

The rebels hope to first capture towns near Tripoli, before launching an offensive on the capital, commanders have said.

Two rebel fighters were killed and one wounded in the battle for Nasser City, said Mohammed Salem, a hospital medic in Zintan, a rebel-held town south of the front line.

Capturing both Brega or Zawiya would mark a significant gain in the Libyan rebels’ goal to topple the Qaddafi regime.

“It will be a huge morale victory,” said Fawzi Bukatef, a Brega rebel operations chief and head of the Coalition of Revolutionaries--a large group of armed Libyan volunteers and civilians who fight at the front lines.

Tightening the economic noose around Qaddafi, Tunisia said on Thursday its troops were patrolling fuel stations to curb the flow of smuggled gasoline into neighboring Libya, according to Reuters.

International sanctions and the effects of Libya’s civil war have disrupted normal supplies of fuel to parts of the country under Qaddafi’s control, but huge volumes of gasoline are instead being smuggled across the Libyan-Tunisian border.

“The armed forces are now conducting checks at fuel stations in the south of Tunisia ... so that neither Tunisians nor Libyans can fill up with large quantities,” Tunisian defense ministry official Mokhtar Ben Nasr told a news conference.

“These checks are aimed at preventing the smuggling of diesel and gasoline to Libya.”