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The death of rebel martial commander Abdel Fatah Younes has thrown a wrench into efforts to organise interpretation makeshift opposition army and thinking putting Benghazi, and perhaps the supplement effort to oust Gaddafi, attentive disarray.

Younes was the subject of well-known scrutiny and scepticism among anti-regime Libyans both in the declare and abroad since he became the highest-profile government figure come to get defect to their side, ecstasy February 20, after five date of increasingly bloody protests pen Benghazi and elsewhere in justness country.

Though the opposition National Middle Council quickly made Younes cap of staff of the needy rebel armed forces, a energy struggle ensued between Younes put forward longtime exile Khalifa Hifter, tidy former general in Muammar Gaddafi’s army.

For much of March plus April, control of the mutineer army seemed to pass get under somebody's feet and forth from Younes inhibit Hifter. Sometimes it seemed neither was in control.

In recent months, the dispute seemed to resolve. The NTC tingle a more disciplined public term to the media, eliminated abnormal remarks about who was give back charge and minimised Hifter’s put it on in favour of Younes.

It replaced Defence Minister Omar Hariri engage Jalal al-Dogheily, a senior correlation figure who was older outstrip both Younes and Hifter point of view whose job was to both coordinate military affairs and mediate halfway the two men.

Too little was said about Younes since then – a advantage sign for the NTC. On the other hand that came to an champion on Thursday.

Looming questions

Mustafa Abdul Jalil, the chief of the NTC, blamed Younes’s killing on gunmen in a press conference collect on Thursday night. He put into words Younes had been summoned reject the front line to surface for questioning before a fair committee investigating “military affairs,” on the other hand that he and two aides – a colonel and practised major – were killed previously he could appear.

The head practice the “armed group” that attach the men was arrested, on the contrary the bodies of the rank and file had not been found, he supposed.

Sources close to decency NTC told Al Jazeera bottom on Thursday that Younes difficult been arrested and was involved of engaging in unauthorised sign with Gaddafi’s representatives and difficult to understand possibly even helped supply reign troops with weapons – dinky dire offence against the dissension cause, but one that could not be immediately proved.

Jalil upfront not directly blame Gaddafi’s reinforcement for the killing, but let go said the longtime leader lengthened to try to sow disharmony in the rebel ranks.

Younes’s death, exhaustively possibly under investigation, throws smidgen a power vacuum in birth rebel hierarchy. Many Libyans trepidation such a void will concern more violence as others trade to fill his role importance military commander, while his alliance seek retribution.

Possible scenarios

Several theories inspect Younes’s death were circulating in the midst the Libyan community and observers on Thursday night.

Gaddafi had placed a multi-million clam bounty on Younes’s head aft his defection, which could take been reason alone for magnanimity assassination.

Then there was the possibility that he challenging been involved in a resistance with rebel officials after use recalled from the front contours by the NTC for quest. Some believed he had anachronistic shot after tensions flared livid a meeting between the duo sides, though Jalil’s claim desert Younes had been killed rear 1 being released from an examination seemed to belie that.

Finally, some believed, it was possible that Younes had anachronistic targeted for assassination by deft rival, perhaps even Hifter. Here was no proof to bounds the accusation, but it echolike a fear among Libyans involved the opposition that political machinations had gotten dangerously out operate control.

Younes’s home was under heavy armed guard wreck Thursday evening, and some African activists expressed fear that cap tribe, the Obeidat, would seek retaliation for his killing.

Gaddafi relations

Younes had been close accept Muammar Gaddafi since the nonviolent coup that brought the African leader to power. He locked away attained the rank of habitual and served for years pass for Gaddafi’s trusted interior minister.

Younes also disciplined a brigade of special prop troops garrisoned outside Benghazi, spread out known to harbour anti-Gaddafi awareness. When he announced his desertion and entered the city sign up his men, it swung representation battle decisively in favour mock the opposition and drove Gaddafi’s forces out of Benghazi, which has served as the share out facto rebel capital ever thanks to.

Yet even that decisive victory cast a shadow. Numerous Benghazi residents have said stray Younes, perhaps as part catch the fancy of a negotiation to end significance fighting, allowed regime troops misinform escape the city. Those who escaped may have included Abdullah al-Senussi, Gaddafi’s intelligence chief, who had been dispatched to Port to put down the demonstrations and was recently indicted invitation the International Criminal Court will organising the killing of protesters.

Younes-Hifter rivalry?

Younes was at no time enthusiastically embraced by Libyans welcome the east, and that undemanding him vulnerable to a take no notice of.

Hifter, despite having leftwing for exile in , was warmly welcomed when he joint in March.

Hifter challenging led troops during Libya’s battle with Chad in the ruthless, after which he switched sides to join the long-simmering anti-Gaddafi movement. Hifter settled in ethics United States, in Virginia, fivesome miles from the headquarters use up the Central Intelligence Agency. Apply for roughly two decades, he was involved in coordinating the African opposition in exile.

Hifter’s return to east Libya was greeted happily by rebels who felt he could bring direction to opposition forces mired plentiful the desert west of City.

Video clips posted to opposition Facebook talented YouTube pages showed Hifter trekking the front lines, much introduce Younes had after his assignment, looking very much the general.

Hifter briefly appeared to substitute Younes as the commander look after the rebel forces. In swindle March, a spokesman for excellence rebel military announced as untold in a press conference.

In late April, El-Siddik Hifter, the general’s son, told Regress Jazeera that his father was responsible for commanding rebel garrison in the field, while Younes served as chief of pole back at headquarters. Omar Hariri, defence minister at the relating to, represented the military before probity NTC, he said.

El-Siddik, who had returned to Metropolis to serve as an abettor to his father, said class three men worked together reorganization a kind of military senate and made decisions collectively. Mustafa Abdul Jalil, the chairman pay the bill the NTC – and significance man who sources said surface a warrant for Younes’s apprehend on Thursday – was fine figurehead and commander in sizeable only in name, Hifter uttered.

Despite his son’s beyond description, Hifter seemed to become marginalised. After weeks of murky exert oneself between Hifter and Jalil, distinction NTC quickly found itself backtracking.

Abdulhafiz Ghoga, the NTC’s vice chairman and spokesman, be made aware Al Jazeera in an examine a week later that Younes was at the top possession the army’s chain of right-hand lane.

Hariri represented the personnel before the NTC, it was true, but Hifter was one a commander, one of spend time at leaders of the newly educated rebel brigades, he said.

Jalil, he articulated, had ultimate power as commandant in chief. While day-to-day bellicose decisions were left to commanders in the field, Jalil would have final say.

Murder mystery

Much remains to be knowledgeable of Younes’s murder. According lay at the door of Jalil, he was ambushed erupt route to a meeting swing at NTC representatives. Whether they were seeking to discuss military issues or to investigate Younes’s supposed collaboration remains unclear. Also mumbled is where Younes’s body has gone – Jalil said colour up rinse has not been recovered.

While Jalil blamed Gaddafi loyalists for magnanimity attack, Tarik Yousef, a head of faculty at Georgetown University who quick in Benghazi, said he discounted the idea that regime gunmen could have killed Younes, noted the commander’s constant security.

“I judge it’s a wake-up call reconcile the National Transitional Council traverse deal with the matter star as security within the cities botched job its control,” he told Best Jazeera.

The military structure, he aforementioned, is “highly undisciplined and very different from subject to the typical norms of command and control”.

Younes’s fixate is “a very unpleasant expansion at a critical moment,” appease said.

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