Operation Oil Theft: Month 5, Week 5, Day 2.

Overnight (21/8/11 - 22/8/11) rebel forces entered Libya's capital Tripoli. However I would not go so far as to say that they are in control of the city. What appears to have happened is that the rebels took control of the main supply routes (roads) in Zawiya to the west, Gharain to the south and Ziltan to the east. They then pretty much ignored the populated parts of those towns/cities and instead made a mad dash up the roads into Tripoli in the hope of securing a propaganda victory that would cause the Libya government to collapse.

Although the rebels are still being met with guerrilla style resistance in Zawiya, Gharain, Ziltan and Tripoli itself their advance on the capital went almost unchallenged. This lack of resistance seems to have been the result of a speech Muammer Qaddafi gave on Libyan state television yesterday (21/8/11) evening. This appeared to contain a coded instruction that Qaddafi was no longer in Tripoli so it's defenders should allow the city to fall and withdraw to fall back positions in order to continue the fight. Obviously Qaddafi's current location is not known but it is widely believed that he is somewhere within the 70% of the country that the Libyan government still control between Misrata and Brega.

So the current map of Libya looks something like this;



However as you can see the rebels now control the areas of Libya that contain the majority of the oil reserves and pipelines. So Britain's current hope is that everyone will ignore the obvious and accept their claim of victory. The rebels will then play nice for the next five weeks to allow the NATO operation to expire at the end of September 2011. Once NATO are no longer involved Britain hopes that Libya will be forgotten about so the looting and massacres can begin.

Obviously the fact that the Libyan government is still functioning and is still in control of the majority of the country makes that much more difficult. So you can say what you like about Qaddafi but even as they're baying for his blood his every move is still all about trying to ensure the best possible future for the Libyan people.