Operation Oil Theft: Month 7, Week 4, Day 1.

With the rebel's Transitional National Council (TNC) claiming that victory will be declared once Sirte falls all eyes this past week have been on the battle for the coastal city. The only problem is that the residents of Sirte don't seem to want the TNC taking over and have been fighting back hard.

Last Thursday (6/10/11) the defenders of Sirte mounted a counter offensive that pushed the rebels back to positions in the Bouhadi district and the city's sea and air ports. On Saturday (8/10/11) the rebels opened up a new front by attacking from the south. By Sunday (9/10/11) they'd succeeded in capturing the main hospital, the university and the Ouagadougo conference centre. By Tuesday (11/10/11) the rebels had succeeded in capturing the police headquarters trapping government forces in a small area of a few streets near to the harbour. However yesterday (12/10/11) government forces again rallied forcing the rebels back to the police headquarters from where they've been forced to resort to long range artillery and rocket fire. As usual the TNC have tried to cover up this set back by announcing the killing or capture of one of Qaddafi's sons.

Away from the fighting Amnesty International today (13/10/11) published a report into the abuse of people detained by the TNC. The report found that the rebels routinely rounded up men, women and children without any justification and that black Libyans were most likely to be targeted on account of their skin colour. Once detained the men were bound, blindfolded, beaten - sometimes to death, burned and occasionally shot. The women were raped and sexually assaulted. Prisoners of both genders were routinely mocked and verbally abused with "Slave" seeming to be the most popular insult.

This report comes despite Amnesty International officials meeting with senior members of the TNC to remind them of their obligations under international law following the publication of their "The Battle for Libya: Killings, Disappearances and Torture.