Islamist militia killed general, say Libya rebels

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THE gunmen who shot dead the Libyan rebels' military chief, Abdul Fattah Younes, were members of an Islamist-linked militia allied to the campaign to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi, according to a National Transitional Council minister.

After 24 hours of confusion surrounding the death, rebel minister Ali Tarhouni said yesterday General Younes had been killed by members of the Obaida Ibn Jarrah Brigade.

Mr Tarhouni said a militia leader who had gone to retrieve the general from the frontline for questioning - reportedly about charges of treason - had been arrested and had confessed that his subordinates carried out the killing.

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''It was not him. His lieutenants did it,'' Mr Tarhouni said, adding that the killers were still at large.

The rebels' top leader, Mustapha Abdul-Jalil, had earlier suggested the general had been killed by an ''armed gang''.

The bodies of General Younes and three of his aides were found outside Benghazi.

His death has shaken both the rebel leaders trying to oust Muammar Gaddafi and their Western supporters by revealing divisions and intrigue within the rebel forces. The shifting and partial accounts of his death have raised new questions about the rebel leaders' credibility.

The general's death removed the rebels' top military commander just as they were struggling to restart their stalled drive towards Tripoli before the expiration in late September of the UN resolution authorising NATO's actions against Colonel Gaddafi.

General Younes, a former chief of security under Colonel Gaddafi, was responsible for the detention and torture of untold numbers of Libyan dissidents, and had long been a controversial figure among the rebels because of his close ties to their nemesis in Tripoli.

The Gaddafi government has said the killing is proof the rebels are not capable of ruling Libya.

Spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said: ''It is a nice slap [in] the face of the British that the [NTC] they recognised could not protect its own commander of the army.''

NATO air strikes continued yesterday with attacks on three Libyan television transmitters to silence ''terror broadcasts'' by Colonel Gaddafi's regime.

The ''precision'' air strike aimed to degrade Colonel Gaddafi's ''use of satellite television as a means to intimidate the Libyan people and incite acts of violence against them'', a NATO statement said.

In Washington, the US State Department urged the rebels not to let the discord over General Younes's death divide them.

''What's important is that they work both diligently and transparently to ensure the unity of the Libyan opposition,'' said spokesman Mark Toner.

GUARDIAN, NEW YORK TIMES, AFP