OnIslam.net

BENGHAZI – The military commander of Libya's opposition forces was said to be shot dead in an incident that remains shrouded in mystery and may point to deep divisions within the movement trying to oust leader Muammar Gaddafi.

"We received news…(Abdel Fattah) Younis and two of his bodyguards were shot after he was called in to appear before a judicial committee investigating military issues," leader of the opposition Transitional National Council (TNC) Mustafa Abdel Jalil told reporters in Benghazi on Thursday, July 28, Reuters reported.

Abdel Jalil said Younis was shot dead by pro-Gaddafi assailants after being summoned back from the battlefield in the west of the country.

Younis was for years at the heart of the Gaddafi government before defecting to become the military leader in the opposition council in February.

The council said that Younis and two bodyguards had been killed before he could make a requested appearance before a judicial committee in the opposition stronghold of Benghazi to investigate military issues.

It was not clear where the attack took place.

Adding to the confusion, Jalil said the bodies were yet to be found.

Soon after Jalil's announcement, gunmen entered the grounds of the hotel where he was speaking and fired shots in the air, a Reuters reporter said. No one was hurt.

The killing of Younis, who was involved in the 1969 coup that brought Gaddafi to power and then became his interior minister, came after the opposition fighters attacked Ghezaia, a town near the Tunisian border held by Gaddafi throughout the war.

The opposition forces have taken swathes of Libya since rising up to end Gaddafi's 41-year rule in the oil-producing north African state.

They hold northeast Libya including their stronghold Benghazi; the western city of Misrata; and much of the Western Mountains, their closest territory to the capital. Yet they remain poorly armed and often disorganized.

Division

Analysts said that Younis’s death could be a sign of the deepening division within the ranks of the opposition council.

"(The killing) is indicative of schisms that have been appearing within the TNC over the last few months,” Geoff Porter from North Africa Risk Consulting told Reuters.

“We might be seeing the most egregious examples of the divisions between the former regime members and the original rebels.

“A lot of the members of the TNC were Gaddafi loyalists for a very long time. They were in his inner circle and joined the TNC at a later stage.”

Younis was not trusted by all of the opposition leadership due to his previous role in cracking down on dissidents opposing Gaddafi’s regime.

On Thursday, sources said that Younis had been recalled from the front line to face questions.

There were rumors that he was suspected of having held secret talks with Gaddafi's government.

Tarik Yousef, a professor at Georgetown University who lived in Benghazi, said he dismissed the idea that pro-Gaddafi attackers could have killed Younis, given the constant security around the commander.

"I think it's a wake-up call for the National Transitional Council to deal with the matter of security within the cities under its control," Younis told Al Jazeera.

The military structure in the opposition controlled by the opposition is "highly undisciplined and not subject to the typical norms of command and control," he said.

Younis's death is "a very unpleasant development at a critical moment."