Rebel Military Chief in Libya Assassinated

The Libyan rebels’ military chief along with two of his top aides were shot and killed today, reports the BB. Rebels blamed Gadhafi loyalists and said they had made an arrest, but the circumstances surrounding the assassination of Abdel Fattah Younes remain murky. Younes had served as Gadhafi’s interior minister before defecting to the rebels, but he had reportedly been summoned from the front lines for questioning that he still maintained ties to the Gadhafi regime.

He got shot before that questioning occurred. Younes also had been embroiled in a power struggle with another Libyan commander. However the investigation shakes out, one thing is clear, writes Evan Hill of al-Jazeera: The killing "has brought a screeching halt to efforts to organize the makeshift opposition army and risks throwing Benghazi, perhaps the wider effort to oust Gadhafi, into disarray." (More Libya stories.)