to the lingering threat of minefields around the port city. 7 August Pro-Gaddafi forces attempted to retake Bir al-Ghanam. Though a Gaddafi government spokesman said it held the town, rebel commanders disputed the report and said the counterattack had been repulsed. A Western photojournalist working in western Libya tweeted that when he visited Bir al-Ghanam in the afternoon, the town was still in rebel hands, but there was no other independent verification of the claims during the day. An Al Jazeera correspondent reporting from near Bir al-Ghanam said rebels were continuing to advance. Al Jazeera reported that an attempt by thirty Libyan Army vehicles to outflank rebel forces advancing on Zliten was abandoned when the loyalists came under fire from the Shaheed unit, said to be among the most elite rebel outfits. Five of the vehicles were reportedly left behind in the retreat. The number of dead was unknown, but Al Jazeera's field correspondent reported that loyalists took significant casualties. 8 August The NTC fired its executive board and asked the board's chairman, Mahmoud Jibril, to submit his recommendations for a new cabinet to the council. NTC Chairman Jalil said the decision was undertaken as a result of the board's handling of Younis's killing, saying, "The members of the executive bureau did not dispose with the assassination issue in a proper manner." Other NTC officials added that the amount of time ministers spent outside of Libya, especially in Doha, Qatar, was a reason for the board's dismissal. Jibril, the only member of the board who was not sacked, would be asked to spend more time in Libya as a condition of his continued tenure as the executive board's chairman, a spokesman said. Reuters confirmed that Bir al-Ghanam remained under rebel control. Rebels in the town said they were preparing to march on Zawiya. The NTC announced the formation of a dedicated security force to protect oil installations in Cyrenaica. 9 August A Gaddafi government spokesman said 85 civilians – 33 children, 32 women and 20 men from 12 families – were killed by NATO airstrikes in Majer, a village south of Zliten. Imed Lamloum, an Agence France-Presse correspondent, reported that he and a group of foreign journalists, attended the funerals of victims and saw 28 bodies buried at the local cemetery. In the hospital morgue, 30 bodies, most of whom were young men but including two children and one woman,