After Mahmud Jibril yesterday withdrew fighters with allegiance to him from Sirte, calling the death of 200 fighters for a 1 minute TV-victory senseless, the second in command of the Tripoli Military Counsel led by Abdelhakim Belhadj, the Irish Mahdi AL-Harati left his post. The depletion of the imported TNC fighters, and the heavy resistance against attacks on Sirte forces NATO to increasingly use special operations units. Tonight 16 SAS paratroopers were captured and 44 killed during an operation inside Sirte. by Dr. Christof Lehmann

Libya´s Transitional National Counsel is in shambles. Last weeks walk out of 90 % of it´s members, and assassination attempts on both TNC Chairman Mahmud Jibril and Commander of the Tripoli Military Counsel (TMC), aka Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, Abdelhakim Belhadj, was followed by second in command at the TMC, the Libyan-Irish Mahdi Al-Harati leaving his post. Al-Harati´s decision is among Libyans widely perceived at the proverbial rat, evacuating the sinking ship. It also once again elicits that the official narrative of a Libyan Revolution is covering for the fact that the vast majority of all NATO allied fighters are recruited from Al Qaeda, Taliban, and various terrorist organizations and war lords militia in the former Soviet Republics bordering Pakistan, China, Afghanistan and Russia.

Tripoli was last night shaken by heavy clashes between Libyan Forces and popular liberation fighters, and TNC forces. After peaceful demonstrations against the TNC and NATO were dispersed by both armed assaults on the ground, and by Apache Helicopters from which there was indiscriminately fired into demonstrators. One man, waving a green flag on the Green Square, who was not lucky enough to flee fast enough, was captured and beaten to death by the mercenaries for democracy. After the initial chock of the assault on the demonstrators, heavy clashes broke out in Hadbha, Arada, Abu Salim and other Tripoli areas.

After the last all out attack on Sirte resulted in over 200 dead and over 1.000 wounded TNC fighters, and the withdrawal of TNC fighters loyal to Mahmud Jibril from the offensive against Sirte, the TNC is scrambling to regroup, calling all fighters to register in “The New Libyan Army“. The call both reflects the fact that the TNC has no unified military leadership, the infighting between Belhadj, Jibril and other fractions inside the TNC and Tripoli Military Counsel, and not least the fact that NATO and the TNC are running low on reserves.

There are increasing reports of NATO, Qatari, Saudi, and Israeli Special Forces on the ground. Last night a group of 15 TNC fighters were killed outside Bani Walid. All of them were carrying Israeli Identification Documents. At 03.15 this morning, nsnbc received a report from Sirte. SAS paratroopers from the 22nd SAS Regiment out of Credenhill, UK, had entered Sirte to carry out a special operation. 16 of the SAS men were captured, and 44 of the elite soldiers were killed.It is not unlikely that the SAS operation was in preparation of an attack that would coincide with a humanitarian and medical aid operation that is currently prepared in negotiations between Libyan forces inside Sirte, ………………………………………………………………. the TNC, and the Red Cross.

Both Russia and China have protested against the abuse of UNSC Resolution 1973 in the strongest terms. The rejection of any UN resolution on Syria being one of the first overt consequences of Russian and Chinese recognition of the fact that the NATO campaign in Libya is ultimately directed against the two states. With tonights capture of 16 SAS troops in Sirte being one more piece of evidence for US and NATO´s utter disregard for the principles of the United Nations, and one more example of utter disregard for Russian and Chinese signals that NATO is stepping over it´s boundaries, diplomatic relations are bound to suffer. It will be interesting to observe if the fact that 15 killed fighters outside Bani Walid had Israeli Identification Documents on them will have any bearing on Russian – Israeli Relations.

Dr. Christof Lehmann

11.10.2011