@muladharaswami Iyer
Libya:Rebels in the besieged city of Misrata have conspicuously refused to accept orders from Younis bit.ly/npUH5J
The rebels in the besieged city of Misrata have conspicuously refused to accept orders from Younis, to the extent of insisting that their fighters are not part of the Benghazi-controlled National Army.
Many rebels were shocked by the news of the killing. "We respect him because he left Gaddafi; when he left a lot of colonels saw what Younis did and they defected also," said Farouk Ben Ahmeda, a rebel fighter in Misrata.
But few think that his military skills will be irreplaceable.
"I don't think that he was really a professional soldier; he didn't command the soldiers well," said Ben Ahmeda.
The assassination will cause embarrassment and concern for the Foreign Office in the UK, as it comes just a day after the foreign secretary, William Hague, said that Britain would recognise the NTC as the legitimate government of Libya and expelling Gaddafi's diplomats.
London had hoped that after months of work, the NTC was now fit to govern. Unless Jalil can provide a full and public account of the assassination and the circumstances around it, that opinion may need to be revised.
