United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres has expressed alarm at eastern Libyan military forces' seizure on Thursday of the town of Gharyan, which had been allied to the UN-backed government in Tripoli.
"I am deeply concerned by the military movement taking place in Libya and the risk of confrontation," Guterres tweeted from Tripoli, where he arrived on Wednesday to promote peace talks between the chaos-wracked country's rival political factions.
"There is no military solution. Only intra-Libyan dialogue can solve Libyan problems. I call for calm and restraint as I prepare to meet the Libyan leaders in the country," Guterres added.
Powerful eastern military commander Khalifa Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army captured Gharyan, which lies around 100 kilometres south of Tripoli, after skirmishes on Wednesday between the LNA and forces allied to UN-backed premier Fayez al-Serraj.
Wednesday's clashes resulted in a rapid offensive that thrust westwards by the LNA from Haftar’s eastern stronghold of Benghazi and signified a major escalation of the conflict in Libya that has dragged on since the NATO-backed ouster of late dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
No casualty figures or details were immediately available of the fighting.
The rising tensions come ahead of a UN-backed national conference due to take place later this month in the south-western city of Ghadames to hammer out a political solution to stabilise Libya and hold long-delayed elections aimed at unifying the country.
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