TOBRUK: Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi's forces pressed rebels in the west Wednesday and threatened their eastern bastion of Benghazi, as UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for an immediate ceasefire. With fighting on several fronts and casualties rising, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she hoped the UN Security Council will vote on new measures against Libya as early as Thursday that might include a no-fly zone. Gaddafi loyalists killed two rebel fighters and two civilians Wednesday in an assault on Misrata, a rebel spokesman reached by telephone said. A witness in Zintan, the first western town to go over to the opposition, said “things were starting” there, as Gaddafi's son Saif Al-Islam predicted everything would be over in 48 hours. And witnesses in Ajdabiyah, the gateway to Benghazi, said fighting was still going on there although government sources said it had fallen on Tuesday and repeated that on Wednesday. As talks resumed in the divided UN Security Council on a bid to secure a no-fly zone, Ban spokesman Martin Nesirky said the secretary general “is gravely concerned about the increasing military escalation by government forces, which include indications of an assault on the city of Benghazi”. In Cairo, meanwhile, Clinton said, “We want to do what we can to protect innocent Libyans against the marauders let loose by the Gaddafi regime.” And in a letter to the leaders of the other countries on the 15-nation council, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said: “Let us save the martyred Libyan people together. Time is now counted in days, or even hours.” Libyan state television said Tuesday that the army would soon move against Benghazi, and hundreds of people were streaming over the Egyptian border after fleeing Ajdabiyah, Benghazi and other cities. Gaddafi's son Saif Al-Islam also said rebels would have safe passage out of the country. “We don't want to kill, we don't want revenge, but you, traitors, mercenaries, you have committed crimes against the Libyan people: leave, go in peace to Egypt,” he told Euronews.
