Operation Oil Theft: Month 7, Week 2, Day 1.

On Saturday (24/9/11) Mahmoud Jabril of the rebel's Transitional National Council (TNC) gave his first speech representing Libya at the United Nations General Assembly. To co-incide with this the rebels mounted another assault on Sirte. As of today (29/9/11) they have entered the city from the east and with the support of NATO air strikes have taken control of Sirte's air and sea ports. This is roughly as far into Sirte as they got on their last assault before being turned back by strong resistance for Libyan government forces.

At Bani Walid the situation remains unchanged with government forces keeping the rebels pinned down on outside the city. On Tuesday (27/9/11) the rebels suffered a significant set back when Dauo al-Salhine al-Jadak - the rebels battlefield commander in charge of the Bani Walid operation - and members of his command cell were killed by government rockets.

At Sabha the rebels advance has ground to a halt with them being unable to expand their control of the city beyond the districts around the airport and the city centre. As a result they seem to have changed tactic flying some 20 million Libyan Dinar into the area in an attempt to buy support from the defenders of the city. This does not bode well for a post-Qaddafi Libya because it suggests a nation populated by disparate and heavily armed groups all out for what they can get rather then being united by some sort of revolutionary ideal. That would put Libya in a prime position to become the next Afghanistan, Somalia or Democratic Republic of Congo.

As for Muammer Qaddafi himself the rebels now believe that he is located in Ghadamis on the Tunisian border. If this is true then it is really bad news for the rebels because Ghadamis was one of the first towns the rebels seized on their Nafusa mountains offensive and from where they mounted their assault on Tripoli. So if Qaddafi and government forces have been able to travel from Tripoli to Ghadamis then the rebels have no where near the level of control they claim to exert over the country and instead seem to be rushing from battle to battle rather then securing and holding terroritory.

This culture of chaos has been reinforced by the announcement that the rebels have once again failed to form an executive committee/political cabinet. Instead they have announced that they do not intend to form a government until after the fighting has ended and Qaddafi has been captured. This is a shame because the prolonged fighting should provide the time for the rebels to iron out any problems with that new government before it actually has to run the country. Plus the way the fighting is going it also means that Libya could be without a functioning government for a very long time to come.

Meanwhile the French oil company Total and the Italian oil company Eni have both restarted oil production in Libya.