Operation Oil Theft: Month 7, Week 3, Day 1.

Over the weekend the rebel's Transitional National Council (TNC) went back on an earlier claim that it won't form a new executive committee/political cabinet until the fighting has ended by announcing a new executive committee/political cabinet. However this seems to be little more then a publicity stunt because the only notable changes are the appointment of Hamza Abu Fas as Minister for Islam and the Prime Minister Mahmoud Jabril sacking his deputy and also taking on the role of Foreign Minister. It was also announced that this executive committee would disbanded and a new one appointed within one month of "liberation." Liberation appears to be defined as the fall of Sirte rather then fall of the entire country or the capture of Muammer Qaddafi.

How long it will take for Sirte to fall is hard to gauge. The rebels launched a fresh, large offensive on Monday (3/10/11) and were able to add the Bouhadi district to the districts near the air and sea ports as parts of the city under their control. However overnight (5/10/11 - 6/10/11) Libyan government forces have staged a significant fightback and control of the Bouhadi district is currently being fought over. Meanwhile the Red Cross/Crescent have warned that the rebel's siege of Sirte has caused a humanitarian crisis. The situation in the city is said to be dire with the main threats to civilians coming from the rebels and the NATO bombs being dropped to protect civilians.

Although access is even more difficult there I suspect that a similar humanitarian crisis is developing in Bani Walid which has been under rebel siege for over a month but remains firmly under government control.

In Sabha operation bribe appears to have worked. Following the rebels disbursement of 20 million Libyan Dinar opposition in the town suddenly ceased and the rebels are now in full control. One their first acts in charge was to deport 1200 black Libyans to Chad, stripping them of the Libyan citizenship granted to them by Muammer Qaddafi.