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dtn uK: Libya: 'Double agent' Libyan rebel leader Abdel Fattah Younis shot dead: General Abdel Fattah Younis (pi...http://bit.ly/rlm3ay
Was Libyan rebel chief killed by his own forces? Mysterious circumstances surround Younis' death
- Rebel security arrest head of group behind killing of Gaddafi defector and his two aides
By EMILY ALLEN
Last updated at 1:53 AM on 30th July 2011
Assassinated: Head of the rebel forces Abdel Fattah Younis was killed yesterday
The 69-year-old was for years a key ally of Gaddafi before defecting in February.
Rebel leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil said Younes and two aides had been shot hours after being recalled from the front lines. His death is a severe setback to the rebels as they were beginning to make progress on the battlefield.He said the ringleader of the killers had been captured but gave no other details. It was unclear even whether the bodies had been recovered, with one report saying they had been set ablaze.A British official in Libya said: ‘It’s win, win for Gaddafi. If the killers were Gaddafi’s men it shows no one is safe, if they were from within the rebels it shows how fragmented they still are despite everything invested in them by London, Paris and Washington.’ 
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Younis used to work has his head of security
The killing was greeted with jubilation by Gaddafi’s supporters in the Libyan capital Tripoli, which was last night hit again by Nato airstrikes.
Younes – a former interior minister who had served at the heart of Gaddafi’s regime since the 1969 coup that took him to power – had become one of the most recognisable faces of the rebel Transitional National Council.
Younes – a former interior minister who had served at the heart of Gaddafi’s regime since the 1969 coup that took him to power – had become one of the most recognisable faces of the rebel Transitional National Council.
The group was recognised by Britain and its allies this week as Libya’s ‘sole governmental authority’.
Younes had been recalled from battle to appear before judges in the rebel capital Benghazi, although the exact nature of the questions he was facing are unclear. They were said to have involved differences of opinion over the progress and nature of military operations.
Some unconfirmed reports suggested the general and his aides had been arrested near Libya’s eastern front on Thursday. Rumours in the rebel stronghold said he had been held on suspicion that his family still had ties to the Gaddafi regime.
Other reports claimed he was involved in unauthorised contact with the administration and had even helped to supply Gaddafi troops with weapons.
Younes was not trusted by some rebel fighters because of his long association with Gaddafi. In the besieged city of Misrata, troops have refused to accept orders from him.
Smoke rising into the air following a NATO air strike in Tripoli, Libya in June
Libyan rebel fighters shoot in the air and shout religious slogans as they attend the funeral of seven fallen comrades earlier this month
Significantly, Younes is reported to have nearly come to blows with his rival for the army command, Klalifa Hefter, during a meeting in March which led to them both claiming they were in charge.
Geoff Porter, from North Africa Risk Consulting, said: ‘A lot of the members of the TNC were Gaddafi loyalists for a very long time.
‘The killing is indicative of schisms that have been appearing within the TNC over the last few months... We might be seeing the most egregious examples of the divisions between the former regime members and the original rebels.’
The rebels claimed to have seized several towns in the western mountains on Thursday but have yet to make a serious breakthrough.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2019982/Libya-Double-agent-Libyan-rebel-leader-Abdel-Fattah-Younis-shot-dead.html#ixzz1TY0c7Uor
