Afghanistan: Libyan oil at heart of conflict with roots in country’s east --- AJDABIYA, Libya — For nine months, a Libyan militia has occupied massive oil compounds in the desert and along the eastern Mediterranean coast, obstructing this nation’s lifeblood. Last week, after days of negotiations, the armed group struck a deal with the government in Tripoli to open one of the ports. -- The group depicted its seizure of the ports and fields as a bid to bring oil revenue and more autonomy to Libya’s long-neglected east. But by crippling oil exports, the militia also exposed how little authority Libya’s U.S.-backed transitional government has over this fragile nation’s land, resources, institutions and — more broadly — its political future. -- The ongoing battle for power in Libya is also a battle for oil, the resource that made dictator Moammar Gaddafi, ousted in August 2011, famously wealthy. Whoever controls Libya’s oil could decide whether the country’s weak post-war government grows stronger or the country fractures into militia-governed territories. -- Libya’s energy sector accounts for 99 percent of the government’s income, according to U.S. government data, and the siege and other unrest — which caused oil output to fall by more than 83 percent — has jeopardized the government’s ability to pay state salaries and subsidies that it has used to keep its well-armed citizenry in check. -- Last month, the United States intervened, deploying Navy SEALs to seize a tanker that the militia had loaded with more than $30 million worth of Libyan crude and steered into international waters to try to sell. As the fiasco unfolded, the country’s elected congress ousted Prime Minister Ali Zeidan for his failure to stop it.