Libyan oil minister defects

Libyan Oil Minister Shukri Ghanem has defected from the regime of Muammar Gaddafi.

Abdel Moneim al-Houni, a former Libyan representative to the Arab League who had joined the revolution earlier, said on Tuesday that Ghanem left for Tunisia on Monday, the Associated Press reported.

Ghanem, who was also the director of Libya’s National Oil Company, joins a number of other high-ranking Libyan officials who have defected from the Gaddafi regime.

Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, Interior Minister Abdel-Fatah Younes, and Justice Minister Mustafa Abdul-Jalil have all defected since the beginning of the revolution in mid-February.

NATO has been enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya in accordance with UN Resolution 1973 since mid-March and recently started psychological warfare operations to persuade Libyan troops to stop fighting against revolutionary forces.

Political analysts say the oil minister’s defection will probably give a boost to NATO’s psyops program.

Wing Cmdr. Mike Bracken of Britain’s Royal Air Force has said NATO warplanes have been dropping leaflets to Libyan forces, calling on them “to return to their barracks and homes.”

Libyan troops have also been advised to stay away from military facilities that might be the target of NATO fighter jets, Bracken added.

British warplanes attacked Libya’s intelligence agency building as well as a training center for bodyguards in the capital, Tripoli, on Monday night, Britain’s Ministry of Defense announced on Tuesday.

The chief of Britain’s Defence Staff, General David Richards, said that although the attacks do not target Gaddafi himself, if he were killed in one of the raids, it would be “within the rules.”

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Fattini, who had earlier said Gaddafi might have been injured in one of the recent NATO airstrikes, said on Tuesday that the Libyan ruler’s whereabouts are unknown.