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Myers flushes it down with two hands in the first half of Thursdays game against Iraq Photo by MUSONG R. CASTILLO

TAIPEI Gilas Pilipinas showed remarkable improvement on the thing it was miserable at just the day before, and the Filipinos learned precisely what Chot Reyes likes and what can set him off.

The Filipinos were respectable from three-point range as what they are really capable of and broke away early from Iran for an 84-75 victory which could have been a lot more one-sided had Reyes not disciplined some of his players during the very physical Jones Cup encounter at Taipei Peace Basketball Hall here.

Reyes ordered Christian Standhardinger back to the locker room with 4:55 left after his 6-foot-7 Fil-German center got slapped for a second technical foul, and Carl Cruz finished what had been a brilliant game on the bench after decking Iraqs dirty-playing center early in the fourth.

Still, the Philippines bounced back from a lethargic shooting night that resulted in an 83-72 loss to South Korea on Wednesday night, connecting on a 7-for-21 clip against the Iraqis with Cruz, RR Pogoy and Matthew Wright hitting two apiece.

That put the Philippines at 4-2 and it stayed alive in the medal hunt after Canada 150 drubbed the Koreans, 98-72, earlier on Thursday for the solo lead at 5-1.

Thats not the way we play Gilas basketball, Reyes said after the game.

The Iraqis were downright dirty right from the start, and Reyes feels that thats still not an excuse for his players losing their heads in a critical juncture of the contest.

I dont care if we lost the game, I told them that in the huddle, Reyes said. Thats not the way we play basketball. I will not tolerate that.

Cruz played almost 20 minutes and finished with 10 points in his worthiest game, but after decking Navid Khajehzadeh with an elbow to the back of the head in one defensive play, Reyes promptly called it a night for the former Far Eastern ace.

Standhardinger, meanwhile, got into a trash talking match with 7-foot center Karrar Hamzah early and clearly lost focus in the second half.

After the Filipinos had opened up a 73-58 lead with a Mike Myers basket, a TV timeout was called and Standhardinger was whistled for his second deliberate foul when he hit Dhulfiqar Al-hchaimi.

It wasnt enough that he was tossed out of the contest by the referees as Reyes sent him to the locker room.

Iraq is bracketed with the Philippines in the Fiba-Asia in Lebanon from August 8-20, and Reyes admitted that, while they learned something from facing the Iraqis, he also exposed some of their strengths.

Its going to help us down the line. But in as much as it is going to help us, it is going to help them as well, Reyes said.

The scores:

GILAS PILIPINAS 84 Myers 16, Ravena 13, Pogoy 12, Cruz 10, Jalalon 10, Wright 8, Standhardinger 4, Jose 4, Ferrer 3, Paras 2, Parks 2.

IRAQ 75 Mayfield 29, Al-hchaimi 17, Abdullah 8, Khajehzadeh 7, Ismael 4, Hameed 4, Alazawi 3, Aljuboori 3, Al-tameemi 0, Talib 0, Hamzah 0.

Quartes: 15-19, 36-22, 63-49, 84-75.

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PH bamboozles Iraq - Inquirer.net

When the last pocket of the self-styled Islamic State (ISIL) was eradicated in west Mosul last week, it was fitting that the 36th Commando Battalion struck the final blows. The 36th was the first Iraqi special forces unit to be developed after Saddams fall. Today it is the longest serving component of the Counter-Terrorism Service a force of less than 8,000 elite troops built by the United States, and the most militarily and politically reliable force at the disposal of the Iraqi government.

The Iraqi Army and Federal Police have regained some public trust since their collapse in June 2014, when Mosul and around twenty other cities fell to ISIL, but only two forces in Iraq have retained the faith of the Iraqi people throughout the war. One is the Counter-Terrorism Service, known in Iraq as the Golden Division, a model for multi-ethnic and cross-sectarian nationalism. The other is the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), the volunteer units raised by a religious fatwa and government orders in June 2014, which has fallen under the leadership of an Iranian-backed U.S.-designated terrorist, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

The evolution of these two forces will likely shape the future of Iraq itself. Baghdad will need effective counter-terrorism forces backed by the most advanced intelligence capabilities available to the U.S.-led coalition if it is to pursue ISIL into Iraqs deserts, borderlands, mountains, jungle groves, and urban hideouts. As important, the Iraqi government requires loyalist forces that are under the full command and control of the Iraqi prime minister particularly as PMF leaders such as Muhandis and Hadi al-Ameri (head of the largest PMF faction Badr) continue to act outside prime ministerial control.

In the aftermath of Mosul, the Counter-Terrorism Service is exhausted. Being the best has taken its toll: The U.S. government assesses that the Counter-Terrorism Service suffered forty percent battle losses in Mosul. In this piece, we look at the lessons that have been learned from the first decade of the services existence and apply these to how the U.S.-led coalition should support its rebuilding.

Why the Counter-Terrorism Service Succeeded

One-third of Iraqi army and Federal Police brigades collapsed in June 2014, but the Counter-Terrorism Service lasted and spearheaded the counter-attack at Tikrit, Beyji, Ramadi, and eventually Mosul. The U.S.-trained Counter-Terrorism Service kept fighting because of the essential correctness of the forces basic conception, recruitment, leadership, and training. What factors made the service so robust when the rest of Iraqs security forces proved so brittle?

Size is a definite factor. The Counter-Terrorism Service stayed small, never exceeding around 12,500 personnel. In comparison, the Iraqi Army achieved a combat manpower of 151,250, and the Federal Police maintained a force of 82,500 at the time of the fall of Mosul. The compact size of the Counter-Terrorism Service meant that selection and training could utilize rigorous standards akin to those used for recruiting U.S. special operations forces. Using one May 2008 training program as an example, of 2,200 candidates in one Counter-Terrorism Service intake, only 401 (18 percent) succeeded in graduating as troopers. The small size of the service also allowed it to receive far better pay, living conditions, and equipment than other Iraqi troops. With pay nearly double that of a typical Iraqi army soldier, and equipped almost identically to a U.S. Special Forces trooper, the Counter-Terrorism Service developed elite espirit de corps and strong retention of skilled manpower, including a high proportion of Iraqs best military officers.

Unsurprisingly, the force displayed superior discipline to other Iraqi units and suffered far less from corruption and militia penetration, to the extent that the United States was comfortable sharing some of its most sensitive military intelligence and equipment from the birth of the Counter-Terrorism Service to this day. The service attained a focus on professionalism, cross-sectarianism, and loyalty to Iraq that remains unparalleled within Iraqs security forces. Unique among Iraqs forces, the Counter-Terrorism Service developed the beginnings of a strong non-commissioned officer (NCO) cadre.

On the battlefield, the Counter-Terrorism Service undertook industrial scale counterterrorism operations in Iraq for nearly seven years, maintaining a grueling, sustained operational tempo unmatched by any other special operations force in world. The service developed intelligence, used in-house judges to generate timely warrants, conducted multiple takedowns of insurgent cells per night across Iraq, operated its own helicopter forces, and undertook the rapid exploitation and fusion of intelligence to drive new cycles of raids. By the time of U.S. withdrawal in 2011, the Counter-Terrorism Service had developed into a finely-tuned counterterrorism machine, and solidified its reputation as one of the finest special operations forces in the Middle East.

Options for Rebuilding

The Counter-Terrorism Service is a different animal three years after the fall of Mosul. The force has fought numerous conventional battles as an elite light infantry force mounted in U.S.-provided Humvees. In the latter half of 2014, it was the Counter-Terrorism Service that held out at the surrounded Beyji refinery, deep behind ISIL lines, until they were relieved by a Counter-Terrorism Service-led column. In 2015, the Counter-Terrorism Service led the urban clearances of Tikrit and Ramadi, followed by Fallujah and Mosul the following year. Veteran NCOs and commandos were lost year after year, followed by the loss of 40 percent of the services frontline troops in Mosul. For instance, beginning with 350 personnel at the start of the Mosul battle, the Najaf Regional Commando Battalion was whittled down to 150 effectives in just 90 days of fighting.

Based on the authors tracking of the services units, if this kind of cumulative attrition were mirrored across all of its combat units, the total strength of service would have fallen to about 7,600 at the time of writing (2,700 in the combat battalions, 1,900 headquarters staff, 2,400 reconnaissance battalion and logistics personnel, and 600 other staff). According to our unit tracking, the establishment strength of CTS should be around 13,920, meaning that CTS is currently 54 percent manned, and only 34 percent manned in combat battalions.

The personnel base of the Counter-Terrorism Service and its specialized capabilities will need to be largely rebuilt. There are two basic models for force regeneration. One is the paring down of Counter-Terrorism Service into one more narrowly focused on traditional counter-terrorism. The services current light infantry functions could be phased out as soon as ISIL is rolled back from the remaining Iraqi territory it holds in towns such as Tall Afar, Hawijah, and Al-Qaim. The service, under this model, would snap back into the shape it held before 2014. The services director Talib Shegati al-Kinani, a retired lieutenant general from the Saddam-era air defense forces, indicated on July 14 that this would be the model in keeping with existing law. The services current 18 commando battalions, four reconnaissance battalions, and numerous headquarters, logistical and intelligence fusion units would be brought up to strength.

An alternative model offers a more expansionary view of what the Counter-Terrorism Service could become. Under this model, the Golden Division would be expanded and given more missions. In addition to its core counter-terrorism tasks, the Counter-Terrorism Service might continue to operate light infantry forces capable of undertaking conventional assaults on fortified positions held by ISIL or other enemy forces. This model harkens back to the mugawir tradition (commando in Arabic), whereby special forces are light infantry that would undertake special missions during conventional military conflicts. This was the Iraqi mode of using special forces in the Iran-Iraq War and the invasion of Kuwait.

This kind of model was considered by the government of Nouri al-Maliki from 2012 onwards, with Maliki seeking to expand the service into a multi-division, Special Republican Guard praetorian force of over 30,000 troops with armored fighting vehicles capable of outfighting any domestic opponents, whether terrorists, militias, or even army units. The attractiveness of such an option was that the most capable force in the country would be operating directly under the prime ministers control. At the time, the Counter-Terrorism Service was not enshrined in law and was not responsible to the cabinet or parliament, as a legally established ministry would be. The risk was clearly that this force might be used for undemocratic power grabs by a sitting prime minister or by the Counter-Terrorism Service itself. Malikis occasional misuses of the Counter-Terrorism Service to harass political opponents deepened these concerns, but the austerity imposed by crashing oil prices undercut expansion plans.

The battlefield successes and conventionalization of the Counter-Terrorism Service over the last three years will probably drive reconsideration, both inside the Iraqi government and within the U.S.-led coalition, of an expansion of the Counter-Terrorism Service as a multi-division elite light infantry force. Popular trust of the Iraqi army, Federal Police, and PMF will remain low when it comes to the complex missions of undertaking counter-terrorism and outreach to Sunni populations on in some of Iraqs least hospitable terrain and most divided communities. Military tasks will be drawn to the men who can, especially now that the Counter-Terrorism Service is a legally established, ministry-level government department (as of August 13, 2016). Indeed, the new U.S. Department of Defense 2018 budget request envisions the Counter-Terrorism Service building its non-sectarian force to 20,000 personnel over the next three fiscal years. This suggests that the service would be brought up to establishment strength and then expanded by 43 percent in three years.

International Assistance to the Counter-Terrorism Service

Resources will now be thrown at the Counter-Terrorism Service. As noted by military expert David Witty the author of a forthcoming Brookings Institution study on the Counter-Terrorism Service in 2008-2010, the service received about $225 million per year from the Iraqi government (cobbled together from discretionary spending by the prime ministers office and the Ministry of Defense). To this total, around $55 million worth of U.S. budget assistance each year would be added. This combined $280 million fell short of the services budget requests, which averaged $412 million in the same three-year period. We can surmise from the continued operational capability of the Counter-Terrorism Service that in-kind support from the U.S. intelligence community and special operations command bridged much of the budget gap until U.S. withdrawal in 2011 and a small portion thereafter.

In 2017, the Iraqi budget included its first dedicated line item for the Counter-Terrorism Service, totaling $683 million. If this Iraqi allocation were to be replicated in 2018 and combined with the requested $193 million of U.S. aid to the service, the total would be an unprecedented $876 million more than triple the largest pre-2014 budget that the Counter-Terrorism Service received. What else can be done to ensure the resources are invested wisely and that the Counter-Terrorism Service continues to be effective and a force for good? In particular, what can the U.S.-led coalition do to ensure an optimal outcome?

The first thing the coalition can do is to keep working together. Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve is much more effective and resilient as a broad multinational coalition than a U.S.-Iraq security partnership ever could be. First, the multinational forces bring real capability and burden-sharing to the mission of supporting the Counter-Terrorism Service. Australian, New Zealander, French, Belgian and Spanish special forces have all contributed to training the service in its Baghdad training facility and the Taji training base, both adjacent to Baghdad. Second, the variety of world powers involved including most of the international players on whom Iran depends for foreign investment protects the partnership from attack by Iranian-backed militias operating within the PMF.

The second priority of the U.S.-led coalition is to maintain embedded presence at various levels of the Counter-Terrorism Service. Close collocation and daily contact allowed U.S. advisors to inculcate the service with professional ethics until 2010, and there was a strong correlation between declining service capacity in the counter-terrorism role and the withdrawal of U.S. advisors. The key levels to embed within include:

Can the Counter-Terrorism Service Fix the Iraqi Military?

A final priority for international supporters should be the fostering of close relations between the Counter-Terrorism Service and its sister services in the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Interior, and Iraqi intelligence community. Aside from the common-sense benefits of coordination, the coalition should view interface and exchange of personnel as a means by which the Counter-Terrorism Service could cross-pollinate with other Iraqi institutions. In the past, the Counter-Terrorism Service jealously hoarded its personnel and did not tend to release them back to Ministry of Defense (where they often originated). As a result, other agencies viewed the service as a threat.

Now the opposite is quickly becoming true, at least at the level of senior commanders. Looking for the best talent to reverse Iraqs military disasters, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has drawn heavily on the Counter-Terrorism Service to lead key commands. Deputy commander of the services operational staff, Staff Lt. Gen. Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi, was tapped in January 2015 to lead the northern campaign to liberate Tikrit, Beyji, and then Mosul. Counter-Terrorism Service brigade commander Maj. Gen. Kareem Halfa al-Tamimi was chosen in May 2015 to head the security division in charge of the government center in the International Zone in Baghdad. In July 2016, following the devastating bombing in Baghdads upscale Karrada district, Abadi appointed Staff Maj. Gen. Jalil Abdul-Jabbar al-Rubaie then the services intelligence director to head the Baghdad Operations Command, controlling nearly 60 percent of the total manpower of Iraqs security forces. Most recently, Maj. Gen. Irfan al-Hayali, the long-serving chief of the services Training and Development Directorate, was appointed as minister of defense in January 2017.

Rather than support an expansion of the Counter-Terrorism Service that could make Iraqs special forces less special, the U.S.-led coalition should help the service to serve as an incubator for military talent. This may mean rotating Counter-Terrorism Service personnel back into other ministries, the Iraqi army, and the Federal Police. Such circulation could assist the Iraqi army in strengthening its own commando battalions and special units, and in gaining skill in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism.

Cross-pollination of personnel could also reduce militia domination of the powerful Ministry of Interior, which is currently led by the Iranian-backed Badr movement, and its Emergency Response Division, which has recently been tied to serious human rights abuses. The service could even absorb manpower from the Popular Mobilization Forces and rotate its officers through the PMF, which might reduce the risk of future tensions between these forces. The Counter-Terrorism Service needs to be better not bigger than its sister agencies, serving as a model of professionalism and loyalty to the Iraqi constitution.

The U.S. effort to develop Iraqs security forces is widely viewed as a monumental and costly failure, but there is at least one element that has been a smashing success: the Counter-Terrorism Service. Of all the institutions that America birthed in Iraq, the Counter-Terrorism Service has been and could remain the most well-conceived and effectively realized. The Counter-Terrorism Service needs sustained U.S. support if the U.S. wishes it to remain as a lasting, living monument to its hopes and good intentions for Iraq.

Michael Knights is the Lafer Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He has worked in every Iraqi province and most of the hundred districts, including periods spent embedded with the Iraqi Security Forces, the Peshmerga, and most recently with Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve. Follow @mikeknightsiraq

Alex Mello is the lead Iraq security analyst at Horizon Client Access, an advisory service working with the worlds leading energy companies. Follow @AlexMello02

Image: Staff Sgt. Alex Manne/U.S. Army

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The Best Thing America Built In Iraq: Iraq's Counter-Terrorism Service and the Long War Against Militancy - War on the Rocks

Its most certainly not easy serving in the U.S. military in the middle of Iraq, but sometimes a reminder of home makes it a little easier for the brave men and women stationed around the world.

For Army 1st Lt. Jessie Guajardo, Chick-fil-A is that reminder. In a direct Facebook message to the Founders Square location in northern Texas, the soldier explained that Chick-fil-A sauces would go a long way to make the Army-issued chicken a little tastier.

Ordering bottles of sauce is mostly out of the question because of refrigeration after opening, etc., he wrote in a Facebook post over the weekend.It was then that we thought of Chick Fil A individually packaged sauces. I took a shot in the dark and sent a Facebook message to the Chick Fil A Facebook page with a request.

And just two weeks after sending the message,Guajardo received quite the surprise in the mail: Two cases full of sauce one with Chick-fil-A and another with barbecue sauce.

I cant thank Chick Fil A enough for this seemingly small gesture that single handedly picked up the spirits of so many people, he wrote. Thank you Chick Fil A.

The northern Texas restaurant thanked the soldier for his kind words about his hometown Chick-fil-A and said they look forward to the day when he can walk into the fast-food joint himself.

Thank you for your service, Jessie Guajardo and for taking the time to write such kind words about your local Chick-fil-A, the restaurant wrote on Facebook. We hope you and your fellow soldiers enjoy the sauces and we look forward to your return home.

The sauce came just in time, too. As it turns out, the package was delivered on chicken tender day in the Armys dining hall.

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US troops in Iraq craving Chick-fil-A get quite the surprise in the mail - TheBlaze.com

In July, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the self-proclaimed leader of the Libyan National Army, one of the major armed groups in the battle for Libya, announcedthat his forces had liberated Benghazi from jihadist fighters. Although Benghazis emancipation was viewed by many as a welcome development, it does little to push back the massive tide of migrants using Libya as a transit country nor to prevent the numerous abuses perpetrated against them. Nearly 11,000 migrantsarrived on Italian shores in just the last five days of June, following nearly 80,000 in the first half of 2017.Over 2,000have perished at sea since the start of this year. The vast majority came from sub-Saharan Africa and embarked from the Libyan coast.

The European Union (EU) has been searching for a way to stem the flow of migrants and handle the tens of thousands who arrive in Italy on a daily basis. The EUs current policy approach aims to shut off the route through the central Mediterranean and strengthen Libyan coastal patrol and enforcement capacities at sea. But it is unlikely to be effective or humane, given the sheer volume of migrants and the number of groups that profit from trafficking them, not to mention theweakness of the Libyan navyand other official security structures.

Before 2011, former Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi shrewdly exploited his ability to use his country as a valve on migration, extracting hundreds of millions of dollars and other concessions (such as high-profile visits and increased trade and cooperation) from EU leaders in exchange for more stringent border enforcement by Libyan authorities. In fact, the recent agreement between the EU and the internationally-recognized Presidency Council of Libya revives a 2008 agreement between Libya and Italy that was designed to control illegal migration at that time. Nearly 11,000 migrants arrived on Italian shores in just the last five days of June.

That policy helped slow the movement of Africans to Europe by keeping potential migrants in Libya, where they were subjected to poor

See more here:
Europe's Libya Problem - Foreign Affairs

SHARARA OIL FIELD, Libya (Reuters) - When the head of Libya's state energy company visited Sharara oil field in early July, community leaders and workers crowded into a conference room to ask about jobs, training and services for local people.

When, they asked, would their villages start to see the benefit of the country's rising oil production?

"You've been very patient," Mustafa Sanalla reassured them, before adding: "You need to be patient a little longer."

Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) raised output to more than one million barrels per day (bpd) at the end of June for the first time since 2013, a feat that seemed near impossible after the chaos that followed the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The NOC did it by cajoling community leaders, shaming blockaders and navigating a bewildering range of tribal feuds as it reopened fields and patched up infrastructure.

But the comeback, crucial to Libya's survival, is fragile.

To keep it going, NOC chief Sanalla has to tour the country regularly, placating restive armed factions and local groups while at the same time tussling with the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli over budget and control over the oil sector.

Even if the NOC can continue to stop the port and field blockades that crippled Libya's production in recent years, its goal of pushing production to 1.25 million bpd later this year will be difficult to achieve.

Output is already wavering due to problems linked to long shutdowns and a lack of maintenance and investment.

Idled pipelines have corroded, thieves have stolen copper wiring at desert oil facilities. No new drilling has been done for three years and few foreign contractors have returned. Funds to replace and maintain infrastructure are badly needed.

"Unless we have the money, not only can we not increase production, we cannot sustain production," Sanalla told Reuters as he flew back from the visit to Sharara and another southwestern field called El Feel. "Until now we haven't received one penny."

Among the parties closely watching the situation is OPEC, which wants to bolster global oil prices. OPEC exempted members Libya and Nigeria from a deal to cut output that took effect in January, but the group is now considering if and when quickly rising production should be capped.

Sanalla will share his production plans at a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers in Russia on Saturday.

Libya has the biggest proven oil reserves in Africa. Before the uprising that killed Gaddafi, it was pumping around 1.6 million bpd, much of it light, sweet crude shipped to Europe.

From 2013, however, shutdowns and fighting linked to a messy conflict that spread across the country brought the sector to its knees.

Militia leaders closed ports and pipelines, militants set storage tanks ablaze. Some oil facilities were plundered. Blockades were set up by armed groups demanding salary payments or seeking to cut off a source of government revenues.

A government set up in the east of the country tried, and failed, to sell its own oil through a parallel national oil company in Benghazi.

The NOC in Tripoli survived the conflicts relatively unscathed, emerging as perhaps the only major institution that could function effectively across the country.

Appointed NOC chairman in May 2014, Sanalla and his colleagues travel freely to meet people, unlike the country's politicians who are largely split between east and west and rarely venture beyond their base.

Last summer, with production languishing below 250,000 bpd, Sanalla began a campaign against the blockades, criss-crossing Libya's huge land mass in an eight-seat propeller plane.

"Since last July, for one year, I'm always moving - all the oil fields, all the tribes, all the blockaders. I sit down with all of them and explain the problem," said Sanalla, 56, a chemical engineer and former operations manager who has worked at the NOC for more than three decades. "To solve the problems you need face-to-face dialogue."

A big breakthrough came in September when Ibrahim Jathran, an armed group leader who had closed several key ports and whom Sanalla vocally denounced, lost control of the terminals to eastern-based military commander Khalifa Haftar.

Haftar, widely seen to harbor national ambitions, quickly allowed the NOC to reopen the ports and connected fields.

Three months later a two-year blockade on pipelines leading to Sharara and El Feel was lifted near the western town of Zintan, after months of NOC mediation with the factions involved. The fields now account for about of third of Libya's total output.

During Sanalla's visit to El Feel and Sharara, he warmly greeted employees, leaders of the local community and turbaned guards, pausing for selfies and handshakes before leading discussions over local conditions and requests for aid.

At Sharara, Sanalla handed over provisions for the nearby town of Ubari, including hundreds of beds and equipment for schools. A community leader at El Feel said he needed water pumps, petrol stations, football pitches and leisure parks.

Sanalla would not give details about exactly what he has had to promise in his various deals to reopen fields and pipelines. But he insists he has never offered payments.

"The issue is to explain to people today in two oil fields that we have a partnership with the stakeholders," Sanalla said. He said his message is "production is very crucial to you as well, not just to us".

There are limits and risks to the NOC's strategy.

The Government of National Accord in Tripoli has failed to extend its authority or win over factions in the east since it started governing in March last year, meaning bigger political and security threats to Libya's production still loom.

Relations between the GNA and NOC have also soured over a contract dispute with German oil firm Wintershall, which has two concessions in the east. The NOC accused the government of using the dispute to extend its power over the oil sector and accused Wintershall of colluding with the GNA.

Sanalla says politicians need to stop competing for control of oil resources and give the NOC the budget it needs.

The GNA responds that even with oil output on the rise, funding is limited. According to the central bank, oil revenues are expected to reach 16.6 billion Libyan dinars ($11.4 billion) this year, still well short of the 21 billion dinars ($14.5 billion) needed for state salary payments alone.

Workers and locals remain restless, worn down by years sliding living standards. Even oil employees have trouble accessing salaries.

Sharara, where output is about 270,000 bpd, suffered brief closures when valves were switched off in March and April, and again when staff went on strike after a worker drowned in a swimming pool at the field in June.

El Feel, now pumping about 60,000 bpd, did not open until May because of a protest by guards, who in reality are militiamen with local loyalties.

Sanalla says the NOC is doing what it can for communities near oil facilities, but it takes time.

"We cannot substitute (for) a government," Sanalla said in an interview with Reuters in May. "We cannot do everything."

Editing by Sonya Hepinstall

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Backing of workers, communities key to Libya's oil revival - Reuters