BENGHAZI (BNO NEWS) -- Libyan government forces have used antipersonnel and antivehicle mines against rebels during the ongoing conflict, which so far has claimed thousands of lives, a human rights organization said on Wednsday.

Human Rights Watch said two dozen antivehicle mines and roughly three dozen antipersonnel mines were found on the eastern outskirts of Ajdabiya on Monday. It is not known if there were other mines which may have contributed to casualties in recent weeks.

"Libya should immediately stop using antipersonnel mines, which most of the world banned years ago," said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch. "Gaddafi's forces should ensure that mines of every type that already have been laid are cleared as soon as possible to avoid civilian casualties."

Abdal Minam al-Shanti, who is the electricity director for Eastern Libya, told Human Rights Watch that his employees discovered the mines at around 11 a.m. local time on Monday, when their truck ran over and detonated two antipersonnel mines laid underneath power pylons about one kilometer (0.6 mile) from Ajdabiya. The mines destroyed one front tire and one back tire of the truck, but no one was wounded or killed, al-Shanti said.

After the explosion, the electrical workers notified local civil defense workers who began searching for more mines in the area, al-Shanti said. In the immediate area where the mines had detonated, a civil defense team found and disarmed 24 antivehicle mines and an estimated 30 to 40 plastic antipersonnel mines, he said.

The mines were found a few yards off the main road between Ajdabiya and Benghazi, in an area frequented by civilians in vehicles and on foot, Human Rights Watch said, and thus posed a direct threat to the civilian population. Given the pedestrian and vehicular traffic in the area, the mines were clearly laid while government forces were in Ajdabiya between March 17 and March 27, Human Rights Watch said.

Libya is one of 37 nations that has not joined the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, which bans the use, production, and transfer of all antipersonnel mines.

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