The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) strongly condemned the military escalation in Benghazi and called for an immediate ceasefire, stressing the need to give the ongoing political dialogue a chance to bring the country's conflict to an end. "The timing of airstrikes clearly aims at undermining the ongoing efforts to end the conflict," the Mission said of Saturday's escalation. It noted that Benghazi has suffered for too long, with too many civilians having been killed or wounded and more than 100,000 having been displaced by the conflict that has raged in the city for over a year now. Residential neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble, it added. The airstrikes are "a clear attempt to undermine and derail the ongoing efforts to end the conflict" at a time when the negotiations currently taking place in Skhirat, Morocco, have entered "a final and most critical stage," said the Mission. "The only solution must be within the framework of the ongoing dialogue process and a political settlement that ensures inclusion, balance and consensus. "The parties in Libya now have a historic opportunity to reach such an agreement that brings an end to the divisions and suffering, and allows for a new page to be turned in Libya," it continued. "UNSMIL calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Benghazi and across Libya, and on the warring parties to desist from any escalation or counterattack, and to exercise utmost restraint to give the ongoing dialogue in Skhirat the chance to successfully conclude in the coming hours." "Heavy fighting erupted over the weekend between forces from Libya's recognized government and Islamist militants in Benghazi, killing at least six and heightening tensions in U.N. peace negotiations. Benghazi is just one front in a wider conflict in Libya, where a battle between two rival governments and their armed allies is pushing the North African state to economic collapse four years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. At least six people were killed and ten wounded when fighting broke out on Saturday west of Benghazi between General Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army forces and fighters allied to Islamic State, a medical source and local residents said. The fighting involved artillery shelling and air strikes, they said. Mohamed Hejazi, spokesman for Haftar's forces, said they had launched a campaign against positions in Benghazi, which has been caught up in fighting for more than year. Western governments see the best solution in a United Nations-backed peace deal to bring the two sides together in a united power-sharing agreement. But fighting and pressure from hardliners on both sides have complicated negotiations. The United Nations and U.S and European envoys criticized the increase in hostilities just before the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, and urged the two factions to finish the U.N.-backed deal. U.N. envoy Bernardino Leon had set Sunday as a deadline for negotiations to conclude. "This escalation of violence underscores the urgent need to complete the political dialogue process as soon as possible," a U.S.-EU joint statement said. Four years after their uprising toppled Gaddafi, two loose factions of former rebels and their political allies who once fought together have turned against each other in an battle for control of the OPEC state. Tripoli was taken over a year ago by Libya Dawn, an alliance of Islamist-leaning brigades and former rebels from the powerful city of Misrata who set up a self-declared government in the capital and reinstated a former parliament known as the General National Congress or GNC. Since then, Libya's internationally recognized government and the elected parliament, the House of Representatives, has operated out of the east of the country, backed by Haftar's forces and a loose alliance of other armed factions. Islamist militants and migrant smugglers have taken advantage of the turmoil to gain ground even as the United Nations and the European Union warn the country is edging toward becoming a failed state. U.N. talks are continuing in the Moroccan city of Skhirat, but both factions from the House of Representatives and the GNC Tripoli parliament warned of growing tensions after the increase in Benghazi fighting.
