left the oil guards. His men seized the Es Sider and RasLanuf oil ports

Still operating from the same office in the old oil guard headquarters, Jathran has placed himself at the head of an autonomy movement in Cyrenaica

Supported by male secretaries, some in the uniform of the petroleum guards, Jathran now calls himself the leader of a regional body to govern Libya’s east

Visitors stream in, forcing aides to lock his office to keep them out and give him privacy

Inside, he issues orders over the phone or signs papers, while watching a news conference of a rebel boasting about Zeidan’s brief abduction.While the prime minister has ended port blockades in Libya’s more developed west by paying off militias, Jathran is resisting. He is insisting on a federalist power-sharing system

“Weelites in Tripoli of “stealing oil” by taking advantage of the inefficient measuring systems used to track crude at the oil terminals

“We cannot sit and watch how people from the old regime steal our oil,” said Faraj al-Maghrebi, an engineer at state-owned Sirte Oil Company, which has operations near Ajdabiyah

Jathran said government officials offered him money to end his action

His office provided Reuters with copies of cheques he says were issued for him by a powerful lawmaker in Tripoli

The deputy concerned says he merely made a gesture of goodwill

RIVALRIES

Jathran’s is just one of dozens of militias in Libya which enjoy near-impunity, though many nominally have been integrated into the interior or defense ministries. In practice they report to their local commanders, not to the state

His federalist call may