Libya Rebels Kill Own Army Chief

LIBYAN rebels assassinated their own military commander when he was unmasked as a Gaddafi double agent, it was claimed last night.Gen Abdel Fattah Younes was shot dead hours after being arrested over suspicions that he and his family had links to the dictator's regime. Rebel chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil, leader of the Transitional National Council, claimed Younes was killed by "assailants" after he was summoned before a judicial committee. But a Gaddafi spokesman said Younes - who was being held at a military garrison in Benghazi - was assassinated by his own forces. Younes was interior minister in Gaddafi's government before he defected at the start of the uprising. He was also part of the 1969 coup that gave Gaddafi power. Some of the rebels were never comfortable with an army leader who had been so close to the dictator.Younes was also involved in a dispute over the leadership of the rebel forces. Jalil said he was killed alongside two of his aides, Col Muhammad Khamis and Nasir al-Madhkur, but denied they had been killed by rebels. "I ask you to refrain from paying attention to the rumours that Gaddafi's forces are trying to spread within our ranks," he said. After the announcement at the Tibesti hotel, a dozen men turned up on two trucks carrying anti-aircraft guns and stormed into the venue shouting: "You killed him." Security personnel eventually managed to get them to leave.