As Libya dithers, fighters take on security role

An anti-Gaddafi fighter stands guard at the Mellitah Oil and Gas complex during a handover ceremony in Mellitah, 80 km west Tripoli September 6, 2011. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

TRIPOLI (Reuters) — At the Mellitah Oil & Gas facility, a joint venture between Italy's oil major Eni and the Libyan national oil company, fighters from the mountain city of Zintan stand guard.
At the Mellitah Oil & Gas facility, a joint venture between Italy's oil major Eni and the Libyan national oil company, fighters from the mountain city of Zintan stand guard.
Deep in the Sahara desert, 700 km south, another brigade of fighters from Zintan -- a city which prides itself as being one of the first to rise up against Muammar Gaddafi -- say they are securing the Akakus oil field in the absence of a national army.
Some of the fighters who ousted Gaddafi are not prepared to wait for their interim government to form a cabinet and begin the long task of rebuilding a functioning state. They are doing it for themselves.
Armed militias are acting as a pseudo-police force: setting up road checkpoints, directing traffic and arresting those they regard as criminals.
Groups of fighters from Misrata, 190 km to the east of the capital, have joined some Tripoli brigades to guard the naval base where several military ships that escaped the bombing by NATO during the war are docked.